Harry Potter and the Year on Hell
by Megz01
Summary: BtVSHP With the return of Lord Voldermort at hand Dumbledore thinks it is best if he moves the school out of the county. He finds a town called Sunnydale.Take a wild guess who Harry and all of his friends run into.Spoilers: OotPandBtVS Seasons 1-6
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter or Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters. The characters belong to Joss Whedon, J.K. Rowling, and their respective affiliations.  
  
Please let me know what you think. If you have any suggestions post them as a review. Thank You!

Rating: Barley PG-13 minor, minor cursing. It's rated PG-13 just to be safe!  
  
Note: This takes place after Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and it is also written as if there was an extra season in between Buffy's sixth and seventh season. The only changes are Faith gets out of prison in this story and Willow does complete her magic control training, and Giles will be staying in Sunnydale for the year. Spike did get his soul back, and is crazy, but I am not writing him rambling so when he is brought into the story assume he is sane again.

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Prologue  
  
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, England (exact location is  
unknown)

Professor Dumbledore is addressing the school at the start of term banquet after the meal. " I am sure you are all aware of the current circumstances that we are facing with the return of Lord Voldermort. Over the summer I have done _my_ homework, and I have come to the decision that it would be best if we move our school out of the country." A murmur of disbelieve rippled through the Great Hall. " I have found a suitable location in the California town of Sunnydale. We will use portkeys to get there, and not to worry, we will have all that desire to be home for the Christmas holidays home. Your luggage has already been transported there. So if you will all go to your dormitories straight away you will find a portkey in the center of your floor. All of you are to gather around it, and as soon as you are all present all of you are to touch the portkey. You will be transported to our new location when your window opens. Whatever you do, do not let go of your portkey. You will not be happy if you get left behind."  
  
" I can't believe this!" Ron Weasley said to his friends Hermione Granger and Harry Potter.  
  
" I think it's best if we simply trust Dumbledore's judgment. I for one will be very happy to get out of the country." Harry commented. Harry had had a rough few months. Between Sirius dying, and then having to spend two whole months with the Dursleys, he wasn't loving being back at the castle as much as he usually would have.  
  
"I think we should get to our dormitories. I don't want to know what will happen if we miss our window." Hermione was right. They did not want to know what would happen if the missed the portkey. Just as they got up to leave Dumbledore signaled that he had something else to say.  
  
"I hope you can forgive an old man for his poor memory. I forgot to tell you when you arrive, please check in with your head of house immediately. They will be in your house common room. Now, please proceed to your dormitories.  
  
Sunnydale, California  
  
Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer was sitting in her living room with her sister Dawn, her friend Xander Harris, and her ex- Watcher, Rupert Giles. Her friend Willow Rosenberg just returned form a summer of recovery after she tried to destroy the world. Giles is sure she will be okay, but he is going to stay a year to make sure she's doing fine.  
  
"So, do you really think she is going to be okay? I mean, do you think she can do magic and not go all black-eyed evil?" Buffy didn't want to sound like she thought her friend was going to go on a killing spree again, but she couldn't be sure.  
  
"No, Buffy, I think she will be fine. I'm just staying incase she needs any help." Giles said. Then looking at the look on Buffy's face he added, " I will of course be helping you too if you need it."  
  
"Nice save there Giles." Xander added his two cents.  
  
Buffy ran up to the steps and started up them. "Buffy, what are you doing?" Giles called after her.  
  
"If Willow can do magic, then I need her to do something for me."  
  
Buffy walked into Willow's bedroom and sat down on the bed. "So, how ya doin' Will?"  
  
"I guess I'm doin' good. It's just kinda weird being back. I mean I'm still a little scared of what I might do. But Giles said the only way to get over that is to try doing spells so if you ever need a spell done, don't be afraid to ask."  
  
"Thanks Will. That's kinda why I came up here. Okay, you know that old building on Twelfth Street? The one that's abandon? "  
  
"Oh yeah. I think it was a fire that took it out. It's been like that as long as I can remember."  
  
"That's the problem, I don't remember it. It may have something to do with being the Slayer, but I don't remember it being there before this summer. Do you think you could do an age spell, and see how old it is?"  
  
"Age spell, not a problem."  
  
"Thanks Will. And it doesn't have to be now, just when you have time."  
  
"I'll take care of it as soon as I get settled in."  
  
"Thanks again Will."


	2. Chapter 1 Arrival

Chapter 1- Arrival

"Did we go anywhere?" Harry asked. Him, Ron, and his three other roommates, Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan, and Dean Thomas were all standing in a room that was identical to their room at Hogwarts.  
  
"I think we must have, I mean it felt like we did." Neville said. "What do you reckon Ron?"  
  
"I think we should go to the common room, and see if Professor McGonagall is there."  
  
"We don't have any better plans, so I say why not?" Seamus imputed.  
  
The five boys entered the common room to find Professor McGonagall standing near the notice board. "Good, you boys made it. So far everyone has arrived on schedule. Now you boys can wait over there with there others until everyone else arrives." She gestured to a group of Gryffindors sitting by the fire. The boys turned to leave, but just as they did Professor McGonagall's shrill voice rang out. "Potter! Weasley! Come here please!" Harry and Ron both wondered what they could have possibly done within the last five seconds that could have pissed her off. "Professor Dumbledore wants the three of you in his office. I have already sent Miss Granger. And oh yes! The password is Chocolate Frog."  
  
Ron and Harry walked to Dumbledore's office still amazed that the building was set up exactly the same as the original Hogwarts building was. When they reached the gargoyle that was guarding the entrance to Dumbledore's office they were surprised to find Hermione standing in front of him. "Professor McGonagall forgot to tell me the password." She explained.  
  
"Chocolate Frog." Harry said to the gargoyle, which leapt aside at once. The trio got on to the familiar revolving staircase that led to Dumbledore's office. When they entered Professor Dumbledore was already behind his desk waiting for them. He motioned for them to sit in the three chairs that were place in front of the desk.  
  
"You three have been extremely involved with the Order, so I thought it was only far if I tell you exactly what will be going on this year myself. Now, I will be telling you a little more then the other students will find out, so I ask that you do not tell the other students what will be said." He waited for a nod from the three of them before he continued. "I have a lot to tell you, so I ask that you do not interrupt me. Voldermort has found a way to penetrate Hogwarts. Harry, this means it is extremely important for you to continue your Occlumency lessons. Voldermort cannot find our new location. The only problem with coming here is that it is an entire muggle community. To them this place is abandon.  
  
"Because you are not permitted on the ground for you would draw too much attention around an abandon building. You are allowed to go out around the area as long as you are back by eleven o'clock. Unfortunately there will be no Quidditch this year, as it would be very difficult to explain to a muggle if a ball came flying through their window. The muggles have memory of this place being here for years. So they should not bother it. Just in case I had the mayor place a sign that only the muggles can see telling them to stay away. Any questions?" Dumbledore finally asked.

"Just one," Harry spook up. "What if a muggle does enter?"  
  
"He of she would merely see the remains of a building that was burned to the ground many years ago. They will be unable to see any of us, or the castle at its true state. Are there any other questions?" No one responded. "I'll assume that you do not. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go check on the arrivals. You three should head back to Gryffindor tower."

The four departed together, but took different paths when they got to the base of the staircase. Meanwhile, on the other side of Sunnydale, Buffy Summers was making an important discovery.


	3. Chapter 2 Discovery

Chapter 2 – Discovery

"So, Your saying this building is only two months old?!" Buffy asked. " I knew something was up with that place. My spider sense was tingling every time I passed it."  
  
"So Captain Buffy what do we do?" Xander asked.  
  
"Nothing yet. Well, nothing but some R and R." Buffy responded commandingly.  
  
"Resting and relaxing sounds great Buff, but doesn't really seem like something we should be doing now."  
  
"Xand, that's recon and research."  
  
"Right. I totally knew that."  
  
"Anyway, Willow, Giles, and Dawn, you guys start research. There's a lot we need to know as the only thing we do know is that this place showed up fully destroyed two months ago. Xander and I will go check out the site." Buffy was in total 'take charge' mode.  
  
"Buffy," Said Giles concerned. "Please don't go in there until we know more. It may not be safe."  
  
"Don't worry Giles, I won't. I just want to walk around a little, you know see if I can pick up any clues."  
  
"Very well. Check in in about an hour." Giles said looking at his watch, just before he removed his glasses and cleaned them.  
  
Xander and Buffy circle the building a few times. "I don't know Buff, not much to go on."  
  
"I know. If I could just get in there..." She trailed off.  
  
"Well, go ahead." Xander said spiritedly  
  
"You won't tell Giles!" Buffy said excitedly.  
  
"Oh in a heart beat. Plus," Xander was reading a sign that was posted across the front door. "looks like the mayor doesn't want anyone in here,"  
  
"Oh yes, we all know what good people the mayors of Sunnydale are." Buffy added sarcastically.  
  
"So Mayor Wilkins wanted to be a big ol' demon-snake. Other then that, and the wanting you dead, and the trying to destroy the world, he was an-"  
  
Buffy cut in. "Don't even say he was an O.K. guy Xander."  
  
"Buffy, in this town, he was an O.K. guy."  
  
Buffy looked around the area one more time. "Well, there's nothing here. We should get back to the house."  
  
"So, did you guys get anywhere?" Buffy asked as soon as she was though the door.  
  
"Well that depends. If you define 'getting anywhere' as having no more information then when you left then, yeah, we got some where." Said Willow.  
  
"We had about as much luck as you guys did." Xander commented sitting down.  
  
"Well, there is one thing we did determine." Dawn spoke up. "It's something magical."  
  
"Well thanks for that awesome conclusion Dawn." Buffy said with extreme sarcasm. She was tired of waiting. "Tonight we're going in there. All of us. I want to know what did this and why. From my experience nothing that is hidden is good. We're going in there hard and strong. We leave at eight o'clock. That's one hour."


	4. Chapter 3 Bad First Impressions

Chapter 3-Bad First Impressions

Harry was glad to be here. From what he had seen, Sunnydale seemed like a nice town. He had to laugh earlier when he saw two muggles circling the castle. He knew they could only see an abandon building, but from his point of view Hogwarts was impossible to miss.  
  
Harry, Ron, and Hermione were heading down to the kitchens for a snack before bed. They had planned to leave Hermione outside, because the house elves don't like her too much. When they had reached the entry hall, five muggles walked in. Naturally the muggles couldn't see or hear them, but Professor Dumbledore said that there was a sign on the door telling muggles to say out. They could not resist the temptation to stop and watch.  
  
"I don't know Buffy, it looks pretty abandon like." The red head was saying.  
  
"I know Will, but how does it feel?" The blonde asked.  
  
"Feels powerful." The red head responded.  
  
" I know, I think I always have. Is there anything you can do to make sure we are seeing what is really here?"  
  
"Hold on a sec- Revealo." When the red head said this Harry, Ron and Hermione started to crack up. No one, not even a wizard can do magic just by waving their hands and saying a few words.  
  
"What's so funny." Dawn asked looking in the direction of the three friends.  
  
"Are you talking to us?!" Ron exclaimed.  
  
"No, I'm talking to the other people who are laughing like idiots."  
  
Xander was totally distracted. "You know for only being two months old, this place is really spiffy."  
  
Buffy didn't even hear him. At this point she was totally pissed off. Every time something showed up magically, she was always responsible for it one way or another. She is either fighting it or keeping safe. Now, she's really tired of these surprise missions. "Something tells me you guys are not the ones in charge around here so why don't you take me to the person that is." No one moved. "Fine! We don't need your help. Will." Willow nodded and created a map with the palm of her hand that floated in front of her.  
  
"It's this way." Willow told the others, while pointing in the direction of Professor Dumbledore's office.

Buffy turned back to the kids who were about Dawns age. " You three are not getting off that easy. Come with us." At first no one moved. They had never seen anyone with this kind of magic. These people could be Voldermort supporters for all they knew.  
  
Xander could sense that Buffy's patience was short. "Look guys, I don't know who you are, and frankly right now I don't care. Now, you better come with us, because believe me, you don't want Buffy to make you." Assuming Buffy was just as powerful as the girl that had been referred to as Willow, they followed. They were also surprised when Willow moved the gargoyle that was guarding Dumbledore's office with out a password. When they reach the top of the staircase, Giles knocked on the door. He felt sure if he had not, that Buffy would have broken it down.  
  
"Come in." Responded the voice politely from the other side of the door. When they entered, there was a slight trace of shock on Dumbledore's face. He quickly recovered, but it was obvious that he was not expecting five muggles, plus Harry, Ron and Hermione who he had just spoken to earlier that day, to enter his office. "Can I help you?" he asked the muggles.  
  
The three students thought it was best to be quiet at this point. "Yeah," Buffy said impatiently, "you can tell me what the hell you are doing in my town?!"  
  
"I think what Buffy means to say is what do you want, and why are you here?" Giles clarified.  
  
"No what I meant was, what the hell are you doing in my town?!" Buffy said again.  
  
Dumbledore finally spoke up. "If you think that I am going to be giving out information to complete strangers, then you should probably leave now."  
  
"Look, to many things have come into this town, and have not walked out. So what ever evil you are brewing, I suggest that you cut it out, get out of here now."  
  
"And you are?"  
  
"Really pissed off, you?"  
  
Professor Dumbledore shifted uncomfterably in his chair. Whatever he was expecting as a response it wasn't that. Giles also saw that Buffy was going to far. "Buffy, I don't think there is any evil going on here. You should probably calm down."  
  
"Okay look, I'm sorry. I just want to know what is going on."  
  
Giles looking at Professor Dumbledore. " I think perhaps we should start over."  
  
"That sounds like an exceptional idea. My name is Professor Dumbledore. I am headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Those are three of my students." Turning to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. " I think you three are old enough to introduce your selfs."  
  
"I'm Harry Potter" Harry said.  
  
Willow lend over to Buffy. "Oh Buffy there's something about him. He seems really powerful." None of the others heard this.   
  
"I'm Ron Weasley." Ron said.  
  
"And I'm Hermione Granger." Hermione said.  
  
"I am Rupert Giles. And just to speed things up, this is Buffy and Dawn Summers, Xander Harris, and Willow Rosenberg." Giles said, pointing to each one in turn.  
  
"So your not evil?" Said Buffy uncertainty.  
  
"No, Miss Summers, I can assure you I am not. I have a feeling we have a lot to talk about. I'd rather not do it hear as the walls have ears. Do you live near by?"  
  
"Well, sort of it's on the other side of town."  
  
"That's O.K. I think we could all do with the exercise."  
  
A/N: Don't worry thing will get better between the "Hogworters" and the Scooby Gang. 


	5. Chapter 4 Conversations

Chapter 4- Conversations

Buffy was leading the group to Revello Drive, listening to Willow ramble about how much power everyone had, especially Dumbledore and Harry. Xander had about a million questions for Giles. Xander was shocked when Giles did not know the answer to one. Dawn however, saw another girl her age who, was now about to be in the slayer loop,and jumped at the opportunity to talk to her. Dumbledore, Ron and Harry were bringing up the rear. They had almost reached the house when a man came running out of an alley, and fell right in their path. The wizards all reached for their wands, but barely got their hands around them when Buffy yelled, "Spike!"  
  
"Oh, it's you." Spike said slightly shaken up.  
  
"What were you running from?"  
  
"I wasn't running from anything."  
  
Buffy was assuming Spike was having one of his crazy moments. "Okay, I so don't have time for this. I have to go." Buffy started to walk on, but Spike spoke again.  
  
"Wait! Is it evil? What I am saying of course it's evil. Can I help?"  
  
Buffy was apparently thinking this over. "Fine, but the second you start going crazy your out."  
  
After thanking Buffy, Spike was introduced to the Sunnydale new comers, and everyone proceeded to Buffy's house. Once they got there everyone arranged himself or herself comfortably in the living room. Everyone was prepared for a long night of swapping stories.  
  
Buffy had questions she wanted answered. "Okay, I want to know what is going on. Right here, right now." Harry was getting tired of Buffy always taking control. She just waltzed into his school ready to burn the place down, and _she_ wanted answers.  
  
"Wait, you were the ones who broke into our school, tell us you story! How come you could see us?"  
  
"I might not have broken into _any_ school if I knew it was a school, and that has been there for more then two months. And as for the seeing you part. I did this really interesting thing called looking."  
  
Harry opened his mouth to retort, but Professor Dumbledore silenced Harry with a look. "Harry I think if there is anymore delay, then Ms. Summers might just explode." Turning to Buffy. "This all started, I suppose fifteen years ago. There was this dark wizard know as Lord Voldermort. He was a true monster. Her killed many people for one reason or another. Fifteen years ago Voldermort tried to kill Harry. He obviously did not succeed. That same night he lost his powers. Two years ago, Voldermort regained his powers. I fear he may be after Harry and even more so, our entire establishment. Harry, Ron and Hermione have repeatedly show that they are barley a match for Voldermort by keeping him from regaining his powers, and surviving his return. That is, however no reason to put the rest of the school at risk."  
  
"This Voldymot dude sounds like a real pain." Dawn commented. Buffy ignored her.  
  
Buffy found Dumbledore's plan excellent, however she did find one small flaw. "Professor, I think you made a mistake coming here."  
  
"Why do you say that Ms. Summers?"  
  
"First of all call me Buffy. Second of all, Sunnydale is on a hellmouth. Any thing evil usually ends up here eventually. Is there any way you could move your school?"  
  
"No, I don't believe there is. It took me two months to enchant the area properly, and even if I find another, I fear we will be too far into our school year to have the students pack up again. By the way, how do you know about the hellmouth?"  
  
Ron was confused. "Wait, before we get that far, what is 'the hellmouth'?"  
  
Hermione was ready with an answer. "The hellmouth is a mystical convergence that if opened will bring Hell to Earth."  
  
"And not just that, a whole lot of nasty, many headed creatures that seem to grow every time the hellmouth is opened." Buffy added.  
  
Now Hermione was also wondering. "How do you know about the hellmouth?" She asked.  
  
After a nod from Giles telling her to tell the truth, Buffy answered. "I'm the Slayer."  
  
Dumbledore seemed to understand these words, but was shocked. All the sudden, Spike started cracking up. "I'm sorry. It's just the looks on their faces is too funny not to laugh."  
  
Ron opened his mouth to ask was a slayer was, but Buffy cut him to it. "Don't waste your breath, I know what you're going to ask. Let Giles explain, he loves this part."  
  
"The Slayer is the one girl in all the world with the strength and skills to hunt the vampires, and stop the spread of evil. The Slayer also kills demons and many other evil beings." As Giles finished this statement, something clicked in Hermione's memory.  
  
"I remember hearing about the slayer. We were told she was a myth."  
  
"We were?" Ron asked.  
  
"Yes in History of Magic." Well that made sense. Ron and Harry spent most of that class goofing off or catching up on some much needed sleep.  
  
"Well I'm not a myth, and with all the evil goin' on, it's a good thing." Buffy said with some pride.  
  
"Well, how do we know you're the Slayer? I mean we've been told she's not real, and now all of the sudden we're not only being told that she's real, but that you're her." Hermione questioned.  
  
"We could tell you all the stuff we've done!" Xander said enthusiastically.  
  
"We don't have all night Xand." Willow told him.  
  
"We really don't have time to test you. But if you are indeed the Slayer, then we may need your help." Dumbledore stepped in.  
  
"Sure, what are we dealing with?" Buffy asked.  
  
"Quite possibly the end of the world." Dumbledore replied. These words shocked Harry, Ron and Hermione who did not expect the end of the world to come so quickly. But the Scoobies, not such a shock.  
  
"Alright well how about I take Spike, walk you guys back to your abandon building, then Spike and I will patrol. If you want to come over tomorrow before sundown we can look into it then.  
  
"Sorry, but you don't seem nearly as concerned as we are about the end of the world." Harry observed.  
  
"Well see, destroying the world, easier said then done. I would know I tried." Willow said.  
  
"You tried to destroy the world?!" Ron asked shocked.  
  
"It was an accident." Willow responded.  
  
"Right. Well, you three have classes tomorrow, so I will send the three of them back tomorrow before sundown. I will unfortunately be unable to attend, and these students should know enough to get you started in you research."  
  
Once everyone said good-bye, Buffy and Spike left to escort the four wizards back to Hogwarts.  
  
A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed. They are much appreciated


	6. Chapter 5 Bad News

A/N: I just want to thank everyone who took the time to review my story.

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Chapter 5- Bad News

Harry, Ron, and Hermione showed up before sundown the next day as they had planned. "Here's the plan." Buffy said getting down to business. "Right now, we are on top of things. It needs to stay this way. First you three are going to tell us everything you know about this Valmort guy."  
  
"Voldermort." Willow corrected.

"Whatever. I want to know how he fights. I know you have all seen what he is capable of. Now, you have to tell me. I don't need details of what happened to you personally during these fights, if you don't want to share. I just need to know his general fight pattern so we can find weak spots. Once you're done, write it down. While you do that, Xander, Dawn and Giles can look through the ancient books that Giles has, and will see what you get when you Google, what's-his-name."  
  
"When she does what?" Ron asked.  
  
"Google's a computer search engine." Willow told him.  
  
"What's a computer?" Ron questioned.  
  
Willow pulled out her laptop, and plugged it in. Ron was in awe. She started to show him a little bit of what the computer would do. "So, Buffy, what are you gonna do while re have a research party?" Xander asked.  
  
"Find something to pummel." She replied simply.  
  
"Oh, okay."  
  
"Nothing around here would know about Voldermort, would they?" Harry asked  
  
"Harry, the hellmouth is like evil headquarters. If the dude's as bad as you say he is, then something around here will know about it."  
  
"Right."  
  
"Alright, let's get started. We need to know everything about how the fights played out."  
  
"Okay, here it goes." Harry launched into the stories of his first meeting with Voldermort, then into his second meeting, fallowed by his third and forth with Ron and Hermione helping out where they could. By the time he was done, Harry was very grateful that he did not have to go into anything about his prophecy, or the time he dueled with Voldermort in the graveyard. When he was done, Buffy supplied them with paper and pens, then told the others to get to work, and said she would be back soon. She opened the door to find a man standing on her doorstep. Before the man could even open his mouth Buffy hit him so hard that the man hit the ground, and the others came running to the door led by Giles.  
  
"Look, Giles, its Rayning." Buffy quipped.  
  
"Get out of here!" Giles yelled.  
  
"You know it's not everyday that I go out looking for something to pummel, and something to pummel shows up on my doorstep. And I plan to take full advantage of it." Buffy said, preparing for a punch.  
  
"Wait! Wait! Can I come in?" Ethan Rayne asked.  
  
" No." Buffy replied disbelievingly.  
  
"Give me five reasons why I can't be trusted."  
  
"You only want five? Okay you worship chaos, you turned me and my friends into our Halloween costumes, you tried to have that demon thing you worshiped kill me instead of you, you turned all of the adults in this town into teenagers, and last time you visited you turned Giles into a demon. And just for the hell of it here's number six, you have the tackiest wardrobe in the world." She gave him a once over.  
  
"It's not that tacky." Ethan said looking down at his clothes. See Buffy was dying to hit him he quickly added, "I'm not here to cause trouble."  
  
"I find that hard to believe, and I don't even want to know how a man, supposedly in military custody got here."  
  
"Well, that was the easy part. All I had to do was-"  
  
"Don't even want to know. Look, Ethan, I really don't have time for this." Once again Buffy loaded up a punch.  
  
"I'm here to help!" Ethan yelled as a last resort. At this the Scoobies started cracking up.  
  
"Here to... here to..." Buffy was laughing so hard she couldn't even get a sentence out. After she calmed down, she realized Ethan was serious.  
  
"You know Ethan, the last time you were here to 'help' us, as I recall it didn't turn out so well for me." Giles spoke up.  
  
"Yes, well sorry about that Ripper, but this time I assure you I can help you, just here me out." Ethan begged.  
  
Buffy and Giles exchanged looks. "You have thirty seconds." Buffy said disbelievingly. "Go."  
  
"All I know is that something evil is coming, it's looking for a 'key' of some sort, I don't know what it means, but I figured-" The next thing Ethan knew the door was slammed in his face. Thinking of this as a reprieve, he left quickly before the slayer changed her mind and decided to come looking for him.  
  
"Everyone get back to work. Giles and Dawn, kitchen." Buffy ordered. Buffy led the way into the kitchen with Giles and Dawn fallowing close behind her. After they left, Harry turned to Willow.  
  
"Who was that man?" Harry asked. At these words Ron and Hermione stopped what they were doing and they all looked at Willow and Xander.  
  
"Oh, that was Ethan Rayne. Professional bad guy." Willow said without looking up from her computer. "When Giles was at collage he met Ethan, and they were apart of some group that summoned Eyghon. They were idiots. Giles grew out of it and Ethan, well..." Willow broke off.  
  
"Sill an idiot." Xander said picking up the story. "It's like Buffy said, he had us turned into whatever we were all wearing for Halloween. Which surprisingly did come in handy when we had to steal that rocket launcher to fight the Judge. Anyway, the last time her came he turned Giles into a demon, which Buffy nearly took out.  
  
"You fought the Judge!!!" Hermione said shocked. Xander and Willow nodded. Hermione had read that no weapon could kill the Judge, she wondered how they had managed, but before she could ask this question, another one slipped though her lips. "So, how may demons have you fought?" She wondered.  
  
"More then we can count." Xander replied. Xander knew Willow was thinking the same thing he was. What if Ethan was right?  
  
"Well we should probably get back to work." Willow said.  
  
"Just one more question. What's kind of key would Voldermort be looking for?" Ron asked.  
  
In The Kitchen  
  
"Giles, what are we going to do?" Buffy asked. " We can't leave we already promised to help with Lord what's-his-face. Plus if we leave now it would look very odd. Harry, Ron and Hermione heard what Ethan said. They'll know something's up."  
  
"I know Buffy, but just think about it. Who told you this 'dark evil' was coming for Dawn." Giles said very rationally.  
  
"Ethan did."  
  
"My point exactly."  
  
"Okay, but I'm not taking any chances. Remember last time, apart from the part where you turned into a demon, Ethan was right about the 314 project."  
  
"Look as we are talking about me, mind if I make a suggestion?" Dawn asked irritably.  
  
"Dawn," Buffy said, "that's why I had you in here. I think you should have some say in what we should do."  
  
"I think I should go to Hogwarts." After reading the disbelieving looks on Buffy and Giles faces, she plowed on. "I mean Dumbledore's trying to protect Harry right? So wouldn't that make that place really safe." She finished and to her surprise she had some support.  
  
"You know Buffy she has got a point." Giles added.  
  
"Alright, I'll talk to Dumbledore tomorrow." They all left to get back to work. Dawn was so excited. The only thing she had to promise was that she would not tell the three wizards in the house until Buffy has spoken to Professor Dumbledore.  
  
A/N: If anyone is wondering if we are ever going to Hogwarts, don't worry, that's were the next chapter's starting.


	7. Chapter 6 Research

Chapter 6- Research

Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting at the end of Gryffindor table during breakfast, talking about what they had recently been doing after their classes. The conversation eventually made it around to Ethan.  
  
"I wonder if he really did all the stuff Buffy, Willow and Xander said he did." Ron said  
  
" I don't know that would be pretty hard to make up. But I wonder what kind of key Voldermort is looking for. I mean he's apparently very powerful, wouldn't he be able to blast whatever door he needed to open?" Harry asked.  
  
"It may not be a door he wants to open. It could be something worse." Hermione said.  
  
"I don't know what you think, but I think the others know more about that key then they are letting." Harry said.  
  
"You could be right. I think I'll go-"  
  
"to the library." Harry and Ron finished Hermione's sentence dully.  
  
The three of them started for the library (Harry and Ron were curios about the key to. Plus, they had nothing better to do). When they got to the entry hall they were surprised when they saw Buffy come in. She didn't say anything to them (she didn't want the other students to know that Voldermort was coming to Sunnydale, or that she had any connection with Harry). She simply gave them a meaning full look, and 'accidentally' dropped a piece of paper on the floor. Buffy then continued toward Dumbledore's office (he had told her the password before he left her house two nights ago. Harry casually walked over to the paper, and picked it up. It said; Same time, same place. Harry passed it to Ron and Hermione, and they continued their path to the library. Little did they know someone else saw the whole thing.  
  
Dumbledore's Office  
  
Buffy entered Dumbledore's office and found him sitting at his desk. She sat down and started asking questions. "Professor, now how exactly safe is this place?" she asked.  
  
"I can assure you it is extremely safe. Hogwarts was the safest place for anything in Britain. The only that has changed since then is it got safer. There are now more spells and enchantments to protect this place then ever before." Dumbledore responded.  
  
"I have to tell you something. Yesterday a man showed up at my house and told me Molderwart was looking for a key. I'm pretty sure that he was referring to the key that can open hell dimensions and suck the world into the dimension it opened. Now the source that told me this is not that reliable, but I don't want to take any chances."  
  
"I understand that, Buffy. Now I have a question for you. How do you know so much about this key?"  
  
"The key is." Buffy gave a slight hesitation. "my sister." This was the second thing in three days that Dumbledore did not see coming. " Two years ago the key was put into human form by monks, sent to me to protect. They made her from me. When they put her into my life they also put memories of her being with me for fourteen years."  
  
"Yes, you would need to know that a slayer is in the area to do a memory charm properly." Dumbledore commented knowing why his charm did not work completely.  
  
"Look, I don't think he knows Dawn is the key, he just knows that the key is here. He cannot find out what the key is. I don't want Dawn to be in my house. I don't think that it is safe enough." Buffy waited a beat before asking, "Do you think there is anyway Dawn could go to school here?"  
  
"I was about to ask you that myself. Being the key she already has power, teaching her to control it should not be too difficult. I also had an idea. Harry is in just as much danger if not more. I think we should tell Harry what Dawn is. He is the only one who can destroy Lord Voldermort, and I feel he has a right to know what his enemy is after. I also think they can help keep each other save."  
  
"Oookay. But no one else can know. Not even Ron or Hermione. This has to be as kept as secret as possible. I don't want to risk anyone over hearing. I have one small favor to ask." Buffy asked her favor, and after being given the okay, she had one more question before she left. " Professor, one more question, if you don't mind me asking. Why is Harry the only person who can kill whatever his name is?"  
  
"It is a prophecy that only he can kill Voldermort or die trying."  
  
" Do you know what book it was in?" She asked yet another question.  
  
"Book?"  
  
"Yeah, all the prophecies I've heard of were in books, like the Codex for example. Unfortunately everything in that book comes true."  
  
" I am fairly sure this prophecy was not in a book. I heard it my self."  
  
"Oh. Okay well I better get going." Buffy had a plan to go home, and ask Giles to look up prophecies about Harry and Lord what's-his-name.  
  
In the Library  
  
"I think I found something!" Hermione exclaimed after a half hour of research. "It says that there is a key that will open hell dimensions. It is really energy put in form. Not many people know what the form is. The key is also extremely powerful."  
  
"So it could be anything. That helps us a whole lot." Ron said sarcastically.  
  
"Well at least it's a start." Harry said trying to look on the bright side. Then turning to Hermione, "We have Charms in ten minutes, we should probably head out."  
  
"I suppose your right." She gathered up her things, and then informed them that she would be spending her free time in the library looking for information. Ron and Harry agreed to help.  
  
On their way to Charms they met someone that made them want to run in the opposite direction. "So, Potter. I see you've made a new friend." Malfoy drawled.  
  
"Oh, yeah. And who might that be?" Harry retorted.'  
  
" The blonde muggle that dropped you a letter earlier. What would Dumbledore do if he knew that his favorite boy had brought a muggle into the castle."  
  
It suddenly hit Harry that Malfoy was talking about Buffy. Harry thought it was best not to admit that Malfoy was right (when would anyone admit that Malfoy was right?). "First he would probably ask you how many times you've been dropped on the head as a child, because only someone who was mad could make up a story like that."  
  
"I know you're hiding something, Potter. And I'm going to find out what it is. I always do." Malfoy added before continuing on his way in the opposite direction.  
  
"Whatever we do, we cannot let Malfoy find out what we do after classes." Hermione said.  
  
"Really Hermione! Because I was just about to run after Malfoy and tell him what we were doing." Ron said sarcastically and got a very angry look from Hermione.  
  
Harry sensing a fight coming said, "Let's just get to Charms." As planned they spent all of their brakes in the library. When they got to Buffy's house, and shared this information with the Scoobies. Even though they seemed grateful for it, Harry, Ron and Hermione still got the feeling that they already knew all about the key.  
  
When Harry got back to his dormitory, he found a note on his pillow. _Harry,_  
_Please meet me in my office at 8 o'clock tomorrow. __Professor Dumbledore_


	8. Chapter 7 New People at Hogwarts

A/N: First I have some stuff to say: Sorry about the delay. I went into a minor writers block this weekend. Time to answer questions.  
  
Brigurl: Yes, Harry, Ron and Hermione are going to see Buffy fight. So far, I had to give intros, get Hogwarts to Sunnydale, and then get Dawn in Hogwarts. But this chapter raps all that up. So look for a fight scene in the next chapter.  
  
Moonluck: Thanks for catching that mistake. If you feel like going back you'll see I've corrected it.  
  
Chelle: Voldermort parts are coming soon. I have a short section about him coming soon.  
  
Tofu-slayer: Parings are coming, but if you scroll down you'll see I've asked for help. Also, Spuffy won't be coming till the end. I myself am a Buffy/Angel fan however I have no problem with Buffy/Spike, I also have another job for Spike. Just to keep with the shows sequence, Spuffy should turn up later. And potions class is coming soon, that means Snape. Buffy will also meet him, and trust me they won't get along.  
  
Thanx to everyone for the reviews!!! They're really helpful.  
  
Question!!! Who should I pair? I want to stay away for putting anyone with Buffy until the end. I also want to put Dawn with some one. Harry and Dawn is always cute, but everybody does it. I wanted Harry and Dawn to have more of a brother/sister relationship for this fic. Let me know what you think!!!!  
  
I want to give an extra special thank you to one of my best friends Ang. You should all thank her too because she's the one who helped me out of my writers block this weekend. She is also one of my most helpful reviewers (not that you guys aren't helpful). THANKS ANG!!!!!  
  
Story note: I'm going to fix this, but for those of you that already read the version of the last chapter that I originally put up I am changing the time that Harry is meeting Dumbledore to eight o'clock because I forgot that their classes started at nine.  
  
'kay, I'm done now, enjoy!!!

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Chapter 7- New People at Hogwarts

Dumbledore's Office 8am  
  
"Harry," Dumbledore said once Harry sat down in front of his desk, "Ms. Summers has been to see me. She told me Voldermort is looking for something called the key. The truth is she asked if she could bring the key to Hogwarts. I of course told her she could, and would now like your help in protecting it.""I had a feeling that they all knew more about this key then they were letting on. What is the key? I mean Hermione did research and she said that it was some kind of energy put into form, but what form is it in? And why do I have to help protect it?" Harry was feeling like he had to do everything."Harry, if the key is something Voldermort desperately wants, then you are the obvious protector. You have deprived Voldermort of things that he's wanted in the past five years that you have reentered the Wizarding world. Such as the stone, coming quietly back to power, hearing the prophecy involving you two. The answer to your second question you must promise not to tell anyone, not even Ron or Hermione." After getting a nod from Harry he continued. "The key is Dawn Summers."

This totally shocked Harry. He was expecting the key to be a thing, not a person. And least of all, not a person that he had just met a few days ago, and grow to trust. Now he understood why the group knew so much about the key. "Does Dawn know that she is the key?" Harry asked. To him it was important that she know, because he knew that he would be angry if no one told him is story about Lord Voldermort. Even if he regretted it some times.

"Yes, Harry, she knows, But Buffy does not want anyone else to.""Well, why does she want me to know?"

"She didn't. That was my idea. I thought you and Dawn could help keep each other safe. You need to protect the key for both yours and Dawns sake. But Dawn will as Ms. Summers said 'watch your back'. Dawn is also your link to the Slayer who may prove to be extremely helpful when it comes time to face the Dark Lord. Buffy and her sister will be coming here shortly for a short meeting, and I would like you to stay for it." Harry nodded.

About three minutes later, Buffy knocked on Dumbledore's office door. Buffy had already told Dawn everything Dumbledore had just discussed with Harry. The only thing to talk about would be Dawn's stay at Hogwarts. They needed to discuss where she would be staying, her schedule, and other stuff like that. Dawn had been sorted into Gryffindor (big surprise), and was taking mostly second year classes (the key's power gave her an years advantage). Dumbledore was able to get her into sixth year Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Dumbledore had also sent away for her supplies and made special arrangements for Mr.Ollivander to come to Hogwarts with his wand box that had a direction connection to all of the wands in his shop. Dawn ended up with an eight inch mahogany wand with dragon heartstring.

"Well, now that that's settled, Harry why don't take Dawn to Gryffindor tower and then go to breakfast, I have an announcement that I'm sure will interest you." Dumbledore said with a wink.

"Alright Dawn, I'll see you tomorrow. We're not gonna do the research thing tonight. I think we could all use a break, plus we're getting no where." She gave Dawn a huge, then left the office.

Ron and Hermione were surprised to see Dawn. So were the other Gryffindors, they had never had a student start Hogwarts after their first year. Harry told them all that Dumbledore saw potential in her, and invited her to come to Hogwarts. Then Hermione took Dawn to the girl's dorms and got her settled. When they got back downstairs, Harry told them about Dumbledore's announcement, and they all hurried to the Great Hall.

When they got to the Great Hall everyone who was either not in Gryffindor, or already down to breakfast noticed Dawn. Malfoy stood up and was about to come over to say something insulting, when Dumbledore stood up. Malfoy might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but he knows not to diss someone in front of the headmaster.

"I guess by now, most if not all of you have noticed the new addition to our school. Dawn Summers is a new Gryffindor, and will be finishing her education out at Hogwarts." He motioned to the Gryffindor table as he said this. "Dawn Summers is a resident of Sunnydale. And speaking of Sunnydale, this summer is was most busy preparing the area for us that I was unable to get a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. I had planned on teaching the class myself, until I was lucky enough to find a replacement right in this very town."

At this exact moment the doors to the Great Hall were thrown open, and Spike came running in, smoking slightly. "Sorry, I'm late." He said. Dawn's jaw hit the table.Dumbledore gave him a polite nod. "Ladies and Gentleman, this is you new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Spike." Spike was strutting down the center aisle with all, but three pairs of eyes on him. Dawn was still looking at him in shock. Harry glanced over at Malfoy who was giving Spike a godlike expression as if to say 'I think Slytherin just made a new best friend.' or 'That guy has the coolest hair!' After that Harry joined the eyes of Ron and Hermione looking up at a very ticked off Professor Snape. This was at least the sixth year in a row that he had failed to get the DADA job, but Snape looked more ticked then usual. This was because, little did Harry, Ron, and Hermione know that, he had not only lost the job again, but he lost it to a vampire. After Spike joined the staff table he was greeted by Dumbledore, who then sat down and continued eating. Malfoy picked up right where he had left off before the announcement, and came over to insult Harry and his new friend."Well, now it has been made perfectly obvious that they will let anyone into this school." Malfoy said, staring pointedly at Dawn. Harry was ready to retort, but Dawn cut him off."No," she started, "they did that when they let you in." The only thing Malfoy could do was stare. He was not expecting that. After Dawn made a few more comments to Malfoy, with Harry, Ron, and Hermione cracking up next to her, Malfoy walked back over to the Slytherin table, and suddenly every Gryffindor wanted to be her best friend.Dawn's first class was DADA right after breakfast. Dumbledore thought that this year extra defense was necessary, so this lesson was now a double period with the Slytherins. The Gryffindors were interested in seeing what Professor Spike would be teaching. The Slytherins only wanted to see if they had indeed made a new friend.The Gryffindors walked in the classroom to find the Slytherins already there. Malfoy was at the front of the room talking to Spike who looked like he couldn't careless about whatever Malfoy was saying. " I can't even believe Malfoy is already trying to butter up the new teacher. He's not gonna fall for that is he?" Ron asked Dawn."Nah, I know that look. It's the shut-up-before-I-kill-you look." Just then Spike got up, and yelled at everyone to sit down."First off," he began, "my name is Spike, call me professor, and I'll rip your throats out." The class was dead silent after this statement trying to figure out if he was serious or not. Dawn just smirked. "Right, now, wands away." The class groaned, remembering what this was always fallowed by last year. However, after getting a very ugly look from Spike, the obeyed. "Now, we're going to take about a few things you might find in good, old, Sunnydale. The number one thing is vampires. You kill 'um with sunlight, beheading or a stake though the heart. Setting them on fire also works pretty well too.""There aren't any vampires in this town." Malfoy said loudly"Really, how much you wanna bet?""Five galleons.""Fine, one day this year, I'll get one in this room for you, maybe even two. Now, anyway, who can name me four vampires that were known for massacring Europe?" To no one's surprise, Hermione's hand went up."Darla, Angelus, Drucilla, and William the Bloody in the order they were sired. Siring is the process of turning a person into a vampire." Hermione said."Good. Now, who can tell me one very rare thing that two of these vampires now have?" Everyone looked at Hermione who, for a change, did not raise her hand. It was Dawn who had the answer."A soul." She said."Right. Dawn, which of the four vampires now have a soul?""Angelus, and William the Bloody." She said trying not to laugh. She just kept thinking what everyone would do if they knew that Spike was William the Bloody."Excellent. Well, that's all I've planned for the day so you can all talk amongst yourselves." Malfoy got up to go talk to Spike some more, and was surprise when Dawn beat him there. Malfoy simply sat down near by to listen. "So, Little Bit how's your first day?" Malfoy was surprised that they knew each other."Pretty good." Dawn responded. "What are you doing here?""Big Sis thought I should keep an eye on you." Dawn rolled her eyes. "Hey, don't do that! I'm just following orders." Seeing the look on her face become a little more understanding he said, "Listen, Buffy wanted me to give this to you. There's been a change of plans. The note simply said to meet back at the house at the usual time. " The bell rang. "I'll see you tonight." The last person to leave the room was a confused, yet determined Malfoy.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A/N: The note told everyone to meet at Buffy's house that evening. 


	9. Chap8Unexpected, Badly Timed, Phone Call

A/N: PLEASE REVIEW!!! They were rollin' in. What happened?!?!?!?!  
  
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Chapter 8-An Unexpected, Badly Timed Phone Call  
  
"Sorry, guys. I thought we had the night off." Buffy said, addressing the group (minus Spike) in her living room. "Giles just took a look in the good old Codex this morning-"  
  
"Book of prophesies." Giles told the confused group of Gryffindors. Buffy was the only one to notice that Harry tensed slightly when Giles said 'prophesies'. But, not wanting to draw attention to it, she plowed on.  
  
"Yeah, well, Giles found a prophesy that revealed that Volder- whatever is coming to Sunnydale in the beginning of June. We also learned that he is gonna ask some hellmouth natives to help him out."  
  
"Let me guess." Xander said pretending to think hard. "What is one thing that this area seems to have a lot of ...well... there are the cemeteries, but they couldn't help that dude out a lot. Ya know Alex, I'm gonna have to go with; What is a vampire?"  
  
"That's correct Mr. Harris, you've won a lovely watch, a years supply of turtle wax, and a bag of chips." Buffy tossed him a bag of potato chips. Xander, pretending to be excited, opened the bag, and started eating. "But really, right now, were ahead of the game, but we really don't know how long that will last." As if to answer her, a vampire came crashing thought the window, and jumped over Ron, Harry and Hermione who were sitting on the couch.  
  
The vampire then turned toward Harry, and was coming at him. It hadn't gotten far before Buffy, trying to distract it, punched it in the back of the head. "I think I got it's attention." She said unnecessarily. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had reached for their wands, before realizing that they wouldn't need them. Buffy was giving the vamp a series of kicks and punches, mixed with a few witty comments, and eventually got the vamp on the ground. She was searching the room for something to use as a stake (the others were keeping the teens back), when the phone rang. Buffy thinking she could multi-task answered it. "Hello?" Then a few seconds later "Angel?" Xander nearly choked on his chips (as far as he was concerned there was no better entertainment then watching Buffy kick vampire butt).  
  
Buffy was so distracted that the vampire ended up punching her in the stomach. "Angel, can you hold on a sec? I'm kinda in the middle of a dusting." Buffy tossed the phone to Xander, who was taken by surprise. He was still managed to catch the phone, but he dropped is chips in the process. Spike had just walked in, and seeing Buffy fighting, he walked over to her weapons chest, and pulled out a stake.  
  
"You all are a lot of help." He said just before he called Buffy. "Hey, Slayer, heads up!" He through the stake in the air, and with out looking up Buffy reached up into the air, and pulled the stake down, and into the vamps heart.  
  
" Gee, thanks Spike." Buffy said, gratefully. Buffy glanced up a Ron, Harry and Hermione's awestruck faces. Buffy could see that Hermione had a question, and was about to ask her what it was when she heard Xander talking.  
  
"So, Dead Boy, how are you? Pretend I care." Now that the sound of Buffy's fight was gone, everyone could hear Angel's response.  
  
"I'm okay, and I thought I told you not to call me that?!" Buffy walked over and ripped the phone out of Xander's hand. Spike had figured out who was on the phone, and rolled his eyes just as Buffy walked into the kitchen. The others got the pleasure of hearing Spike's comments on Angel.  
  
"Oh, what does that great poof want?" Spike asked, but he was ignored.  
  
Willow was looking at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who had yet to move from their places on the couch. "You guys okay there?" She asked.  
  
"How-?" Ron started.  
  
"Super Slayer strength, kinda comes with the job." Dawn answered the unfinished question.  
  
"Yes, well, at the moment we have more pressing matters. First of all, did anyone, who lives in this house, invite anyone in recently?" Giles asked. No one responded, so Giles took that as a no. " Well, then , we have a great deal of research to do. We need to find out how that vampire could get in, and stop something like that for happening again."  
  
"A vampire can't just walk into a person's home?" Harry asked.  
  
"No, Harry, they can't. A vampire can only enter a person's house if they are invited in. Once that occurs, they are then after welcome in the house." Hermione stated.  
  
"Unless of course, you do a spell to reverse the invitation. That's something I think we do a little to much of around here." Willow said  
  
"I know how the vampire got in!" Buffy said coming back into the room and hanging up the phone. " Angel just said that he got wind of a curse that can make it possible for vampires to enter houses uninvited, and guess what? It's been used. Angel's not to sure of the specifics, all he can tell us is that it's been around for a while, and I'm talking before Darla."

"That was a while ago." Spike commented.  
  
"So, someone wants vampires to enter everyone's house, and why not. I mean, sending out the invitations, inviting them in one by one is far to much work." Xander said with extreme sarcasm.  
  
"Right. Well we need to find out who is doing this and why." Giles said.  
  
"Isn't it obvious who it is?" Harry asked.  
  
"Harry you are used to there being only one creature of evil that could do or want to do something like this. Now, it is quit probable that it is Voldermort, but right now we have no way of knowing. Many things could have done this, especially on the hellmouth." As Giles finished, Harry nodded.  
  
"I just have one question." Hermione said. "Who's Angel?"  
  
"That is a much longer story then we have time for." Buffy answered simply.  
  
"Right." Hermione responded.  
  
"Giles it's getting late. I'm gonna walk the four of them back to -" Buffy was cut off by a high pitch scream coming from what sounded like right in front of her house. Everyone scrambled outside to see Anya jumping up and down.  
  
"OH MY GOD!!!!! IT'S A BUNNY! IN THE BUSH!" She shrieked. Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at Dawn.  
  
"That's Anya, she has Bunny fear." Dawn said. The other three understood, but were still having difficulty trying not to laugh.  
  
"Anya, this is Harry, Ron and Hermione. They go to Hogwarts. Because of certain dangers, the school has been moved here for the year." The three Gryffindor's were not sure what Giles was doing. Obviously he trusted this girl, but they had just met her. Giles continued talking. "Buffy was just about to walk them back to school, but before they go, why don't you tell us what you are doing on Buffy's lawn, at this time of the night?"  
  
"Oh, Giles, it's not that late." Anya said, still staring at the bushes. "Well, D'Hoffryn put me on suspension, because he's mad at me, I'don't know why, but I got really board, so I figured you guys were probably saving the world or something, and I thought I'd help. That is if you want me to." Anya finished hopefully.  
  
"Of course we want you to Anya. To be honest we an use all the help we can get." Giles told a very happy Anya. Giles lead her inside the house to fill her in on what they were doing, while Buffy walked the others back to school. Buffy couldn't help but notice that Harry and Ron kept glancing at her out of the corner of their eyes. Dawn must of noticed this to because all of the sudden she turned to them and said;  
  
"You know, she's not gonna hurt you." Buffy nodded her head in agreement. Harry and Ron still seemed uneasy, but were soon fascinated by what Buffy could do as Hermione seized the opportunity to ask Buffy everything she could about Slayer abilities.


	10. Chapter 9 More Secrets Uncovered

Okay, sorry for the delay, but Basketball season started so count on things slowing down, I am however going to try to get a few chapters up this week cuz of Thanksgiving and I (like most of you) have a wonderful (fully needed) four days off. ' kay, enjoy!!!

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Chapter 9- More Research

Harry , Ron, Hermione and Dawn were sitting in the common room just after Buffy brought them back. "So, is it normal for your sister to kill vampires then?" Ron asked. Dawn just stared at him.

"Ron, the term is _Vampire _Slayer you figure it out." She said. Ron was still a little unsure what to think of Buffy.

"Well, I don't know about you all, but I'm going to the library." Hermione said standing up.

"Why would you be going to the library now?" Dawn asked.

"To do research."

"Hermione, incase you haven't noticed, we've just spend the last several hours researching." Ron said pointedly.

"Yes, Ron I am well aware of that, but incase you haven't noticed, we have not done any research on the key. It is important that we find out what Voldermort wants so we can get it before he does." With that she headed toward the portrait hole.

"She's giving me a headache. I'm going to bed." Ron said somewhat reluctantly, and headed toward the boy's staircase. This left Dawn and Harry both with the same thoughts; 'What if she figures it out?!' Both knew that they had to talk, but most defiantly not in the packed common room. Harry caste Dawn a meaningful look, then got up, and walked over to the portrait whole. Dawn got up and followed.

"We need to find a place where we can talk without being over heard." Harry said to Dawn as they walked briskly down the hall.

"I'm guessing you have a place in mind?" Dawn questioned Harry just nodded, and told Dawn to stand next to a window. Then Harry began to pace back and forth between the window and a pot (three times). Dawn was just about to ask what he was doing, when Harry motioned for Dawn to come to where he was standing. Then, he opened a door that had just appeared in front of him, and Dawn could only stair in amazement.

"This is the Room of Requirement. It gives you a place for anything you need. Right now that's not important, we need to keep Hermione from finding out you're the key, because she's defiantly clever enough to." Harry said all of this very quickly while he and Dawn sat down on one of the couches.

"Maybe if we just try to keep her busy, you know, not give her enough time to do too much research, or have her research other things." Harry just looked at her.

"Dawn, that's only gonna work for so long. What we need is something that might take awhile like-"

"Oh! Oh! I know. I could ask her to help me get caught up that would take a while."

"That should work. I just hope she doesn't get suspicious. I know we can trust her."

" I know, Harry, it's just know one can slip up, the less people know what I am the better."

"I wasn't blaming you." Harry said, followed by an awkward silence. "Dawn, I have a question. How come Buffy's so – well – bossy?" Harry said not wanting to offend Dawn, but she just laughed.

"She's always been that way, even when people told her what to do. There's this group called the Watcher's Council, and they give orders to the Slayer and her current Watcher, telling them how a situation should be handled. They would be giving Buffy orders left and right. They only time she listened to them, was when she was already going to do what the watchers told her to do. Eventually, the Watcher's Council got a little to stuck up, so Buffy quit the Council and continued slaying her own way."

"Has she ever herd from them since then?"

"Yes, one day, like a year and a half ago, they showed up at the Magic Box, which was a store that Giles, and later Anya owned. It was destroyed last June, but anyway, they showed up and took control, that is until Buffy got tired of it. She told - no ordered them – to pay Giles, then told them to get out before she thought them out, then they when running."

"Your life sounds very interesting."

"Yeah, well, wait till you hear Buffy's side. So tell me about you. I mean you've saved the world, there's a story there."

"There really isn't. I faced Voldermort a few times, and got lucky, not everyone got as luck as it did." Harry said the last few words quietly so Dawn could barely hear him.

"Look, the only time luck is involved is when the bad guy wins. Listen, to me it seems like your life hasn't been too peachy, but if anyone can relate to you, it's Buffy. You should talk to her later."

"I don't think anyone can relate to me." Harry said sadly thinking of Sirius, then of the prophesy that he had heard at the end of last year.

Buffy's House

"So, Ahn, whatcha do to temporarily loose your powers?" Xander asked his ex fiancé.

"That's none of you business Xander." Anya snapped. The truth was that Anya wasn't suspended, she was fired. D'Hoffryn said she had gone soft. Nothing she really felt like sharing yet.

"Look, it doesn't matter." Buffy said. "I'm just glad you decided to help Anya." Anya nodded perkily. "Here's what we're up to...."

Voldermort's Lair

"I sent that vampire to kill Harry Potter yesterday, just after I preformed that curse. Why has he not returned?" Voldermort asked Wormtail.

"I-I don not know m'lord, I shall look into it, and-and get back to you." Wormtail stammered.

"Good, Good. Go now, Wormtail. Find me some answers."

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A/N: Sorry, I know this chapter was not the most interesting, but it was necessary. Also, A few chapter's ago I asked who I should put together and no one (that's right no one) gave me any input, so I'm just gonna start pairings and if they suck, don't blame me cuz I asked for your help!!


	11. Chapter 10 Potions and Changes

First of all I want to apologize for taking so long to get this up. I have the next chapter all written, but how long it will take me to type God only knows.  
  
Now, time to answer review questions;  
  
Kilea859: The reason Dumbledore didn't know he was going onto a hellmouth is because he didn't have time to look in to it. Like he said before it took him two months to set the place up, so it was pretty much a close you eyes and point at a random spot on the map, and go there kinda deal.  
  
Sellser: Thanx for letting me know. Mistakes should minimize cuz I got a Beta reader.  
  
Becsulet: I think I'm gonna go with your ideas for pairings. I was kinda going that way my self.  
  
AN EXTRA SPECAL THANX TO; ezrajade, Kalystia, brigurl, Becsulet and Kristy Marie for their input on pairings.  
  
NOTE: Anything inside asterisks() are thoughts.  
  
Now for the story.

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Chapter 10- Potions and Changes  
  
Harry had just gotten into bed when he felt the familiar stabbing pain in his forehead. It didn't last long, but it was enough to keep Harry up all night trying to figure out what Voldermort was feeling.  
  
Harry had no intention of telling anyone about his scar hurting. The next day was torture enough for all of them. They had their first potions class of the year, and for Dawn, it was her first potions class ever. Snape started his class with a lecture about being in the N.E.W.T. potions class. Then he went right in to instructions that began with making sure Dawn and Hermione were not sitting next to each other.  
  
"Directions are here." He flicked his wand at the board. "You know what to do." He turned to Dawn. "Miss Summers, you will not be able to participate. Why you are in this class I do not know. There is no need for you to make an effort. Just sit and do not disturb anyone or anything.  
  
Draco smirked, however his expression quickly changed to surprise when Dawn began to make the potion anyway. No one tells a Summers they are not good enough! Dawn thought. She knew she had Willow and partially Anya to thank for knowing the ingredients to the potion. Dawn recalled the many times Anya had yelled at her for putting things next to each other in the Magic Box. They were making a sleeping draft. Fairly simple for an N.E.W.T. class, but today, Snape was in no mood to deal with students messing up. Just give them something easy the first class, then knock them over with something hard. That was his thought process anyway.  
  
Snape walked around the room making nasty comments to all the Gryffindors , and complimenting all the Slytherins. However, when he came to Dawn he could not come up with anything nasty to say, so he kept walking, and moved on to Harry where he found many things to insult. Ron did not miss that Dawn was not insulted, and he stared at her in awe.  
  
At the end of the period, Snape had them bottle a sample of the potion for testing. He 'randomly' selected Dawn's potion to test on a rat. "Now, if Miss Summers has made this correctly, which I doubt, then this rat will go to sleep and reawaken when I give it this solution. If not he will most likely be poisoned, and it will not reawaken." Snape tested Dawn's potion, and to everyone's surprise except for Dawn's, the rat woke up. Snape's face went from a smirk, to shock, to a sly smile. "Ten points from Gryffindor. I told you to sit, and not mess with anything Miss Summers." He said as the bell rang.  
  
The Gryffindors left Snape's dungeons as mad as anything. They could not believe that Dawn had done everything right even though she wasn't expected to, and still lost points. The Slytherins all left with identical smirks on all of their faces.  
  
On their way back to Gryffindor tower for break. Ron turned to a fuming Dawn. "There was nothing you could have done." He told her. "Snape would have found someway to take points off no matter what." He said wistfully.  
  
"That's not the point. I made that potion better then almost everyone in that class. He said he could not understand why I was in that class, so I showed him why. Man, I wish I could introduce him to Buffy. I can tell she would hate him. He would be on the ground in five seconds." Ron, Harry, Hermione and Dawn all took a moment to visualize that, before Harry brought the topic around to Malfoy.  
  
"Did you guys see the look on Malfoy's face when Dawn did the potion correctly! I wish I had a camera. That is the kind of thing I want to remember forever."  
  
"So what's his deal anyway?" Dawn asked.  
  
"Who Malfoy?" Harry said. Dawn nodded. "That's one thing we were never able to figure out. He has always treated everyone who was not a pureblood-"  
  
"Comes from an all wizarding family." Hermione added seeing the confused look on Dawn's face.  
  
"or not as rich as he is like dirt. Then of coarse, we're in Gryffindor so-"  
  
"He likes you about as much as a whole in the head to begin with." Dawn guessed. Harry, Ron and Hermione nodded. They spent their break telling Dawn all the countless things Malfoy has done over the years. Then they headed for DADA.  
  
Spike started today's class by introducing a new faculty member who was sitting in on the DADA classes for the day. " What she is going to be doing I don' know, and frankly I don' care. Anyway, here's Professor Anyanka." This was the second time this week that Dawn's jaw hit the table. She swore she was going to have a bruise there. This time however, Harry, Ron, and Hermione also shared her surprise when the girl who they had seen running from bunnies walked into the room. Anya sat down in Spike's chair behind his desk.  
  
"Right, well, today we are going to be talking about Vengeance Demons." He then turned and smile mischievously at Anya who smiled back. Malfoy was the only one who caught the exchange of smiles between Dawn and Spike, and then to his surprise, Dawn and Anya. Spike went on to explain what the Vengeance Demons' power source was, and then he let Anya take over saying she knows a lot about the subject.  
  
Draco didn't know what was happening to him. He felt like his life was being turned upside down. He had gone from a little rich boy with no worries, always thinking people weren't as good as him because they weren't purebloods or they weren't as rich as him. But this summer, everything changed.  
  
Draco knew his father was a Death Eater, but that really didn't matter to him in the past. No, the truth was he never truly understood what a Death Eater did. When his father was a true Death Eater, not a Death Eater in hiding, Draco had been too young to remember exactly what his father had done. At the end of last year, Voldermort had officially returned to power (or at least, the Ministry finally admitted that Voldermort was back at full strength). Over the summer Draco had found out what being a Death Eater was all about. He also found out that he wanted no part of it!  
  
Draco really didn't have a say in the matter though, over Christmas break, he was going to be initiated. He would have the Dark Mark burned into his skin, and there was nothing he could do about it. What his father was apart of was pure evil. Now, Draco knew that he could be mean to anyone and not care, but this was different. He would be helping Lord Voldermort kill people! Just to think of it gave him the chills.  
  
All of the sudden, new things mattered to Draco. He found that he didn't want to be mean anymore, not even to Potter and his friends. This, he thought, was mainly out of fear of turning into his father. Draco wanted to change. But how could he change now?  
  
He couldn't. It was that simple. But for something so simple, it seemed so amazingly difficult. He found himself spending most of his time out of Slytherin common room, away from the others who could not stop talking about what their parents were doing for Voldermort. He simply couldn't take it. With Crabbe and Goyle graduating last year. Draco expected himself to feel alone, but he wasn't. The only reason Crabbe and Goyle hung out with him to begin with was because Draco's father was some powerful Death Eater. He never really had friends. That was one reason he picked on Harry Potter. Draco was highly envious of what Harry had. True friends.  
  
Speaking of Harry, Draco had noticed a new girl hanging out with Potter and his crew. This girl was so much different then any other girl he had ever seen before. Every time he saw her, his stomach lifted. He also had never met anyone that was so quick with a come back when he put them down, but then, that was one of the things he liked most about her. What was he saying! She was a Gryffindor, and one of Potter's friends. Plus there was something odd about her. She seemed to know all of the new teachers. Now one he could understand, but two. He had a feeling that it was too much of a coincidence. And where was it that she, Potter, Granger, and Weasley went every night. He knew he didn't have a chance with her, but he couldn't help wondering what they were up to. He decided that to night, he would find out.


	12. Chapter 11 Spy

For starters I am really really really sorry! I know I haven't updated in a long time. But I have been writing. I have five more chapters written so you can bet their coming soon.

Secondly, thank you to everyone who reviewed (I'm too lazy to list everyone) It was greatly appreciated. I also want just want to say that Nikki101 and brigurl, you two have got to move in with me! You do wonders for my self-esteem. Thank you again.

I also wanted to let anyone who didn't know that the WB (who are a group of T.V. idiots that clearly don't have a clue what they r doing) will be canceling Angel after this season. You can go to , , and/or .

One more thing. Last night at the Academy Awards, Lord of the Rings won all eleven Oscars for the categories they were nominated in. These include; Best Picture, Best Director (Peter Jackson), Best Make-up, Best Costume Design, Best Art Design, Best Original Song, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects and Best Adapted Screenplay (and yes, I am so much of a dork that I just said all of them off the top of my head). Now on with the story.

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Chapter 11-Spy

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Dawn left the castle just before sunset to go to Buffy's house. Little did they know someone else was following them at a distance. When they got to the Summers' home, Dawn let them in. Draco was tempted to follow, but there were too many people in this house. He would be caught for sure. So, hidden under the invisibility cloak his father had given him, Draco parked him self in front of the huge living room window.

Meanwhile, inside the house; "Well, we might have found a spell to put the vampire invitation rule back into effect." Giles was saying. "However, we can't be sure." Buffy, who was not around when all of this research was going on, turned to Giles.

"Giles at this point I don't care if it turns the furniture into fruit. If there's a chance it might work, just do it! Giles, I can't even sleep anymore. Every vamp out there knows they can get into anyone's house, and for some odd reason they all come running here." Buffy finished sarcastically.

"Very well then, Willow." Giles handed Willow the book, and several ingredients. Willow lit the candles, and was about to start.

"Hold on there. Red's doin' this?" Spike asked. When the others nodded Spike said, "Fine, but I don't want the world to end. It's been very good to me recently." The others just rolled their eyes, and Buffy nodded to Willow.

"Okay, here goes nothing- I hope." Willow said. Everyone knew she was nervous, but if she wasn't going to say anything, then neither were they. "Os vampires podem somente entrar em un respouso se convidad dentro por algeuem que vive na coso lugares publicos excluiram." Outside the window, Draco had to duck as his DADA teacher came hurling out the window. However, everyone inside the house had turned their attention to Willow, whose eyes and hair had turned black. Xander sat down next to Willow who was on the floor performing the spell.

"WILLOW!" Xander shouted. Buffy ran up behind him, as Giles and Anya pulled the kids to the door in case they had to get out. Luckily, Willow's eyes slowly retuned to their normal green color.

"I'm okay." She said looking at Xander, then up at Buffy.

"I thought I was gonna have to get out my yellow crayon again." Xander said. Willow smiled.

"Oh yeah, sure! No one worry about poor Spike who just got thought out of a window." Spike hollered from outside the broken window, trying to get in.

" Spike get back in here." Buffy said exasperatedly.

"Okay, then."

"Will, why don't you go to bed."

"That might not be a bad idea. Thanks Buffy." Willow said as she headed for the stairs. Then turning to the others. "We have work to do. Giles."

"Buffy?" Hermione spoke up. "Would you like me to fix the window?"

"You can do that?! Yes, by all means." With a wave of her wand Hermione fixed then window, then Giles addressed the group.

"Yes, well, we need to know exactly why Voldemort is coming to Sunnydale. Ethan said it was to get this key, which is possible, but I don't trust Ethan at all, so we need to find out what he really wants." Giles said trying to make it sound as if he had no idea what the key was.

"Well, he could just be after Harry." Ron suggested

"True, but no one knows where Hogwarts has been relocated to except the students, staff, and well, us." Anya said. A student could tell a parent or someone where they are. I mean it's not like the student's aren't allowed to talk to their parents and they could be Death Eaters for all we – What!" Anya asked noticing the looks on Harry, Ron and Hermione's faces.

"A lot of the students in Slytherin house have parents who are Death Eaters." Hermione said.

"Is there any one kid in particular that would tell?" Buffy asked the students.

"Malfoy." The three said at the same time.

"Could one of you guys-" Buffy started.

"I'll do it!" Dawn jumped in.

"Dawn, maybe on of them should." Buffy said pointing at Ron, Harry and Hermione. "I mean, they know him better."

"No, if anyone can get something out of Malfoy, it's Dawn. We've known him for five years. There's no way he's telling us anything. If anyone's gonna get Malfoy to talk, Dawn will." Ron said replaying the time Dawn shut Malfoy up in his mind.

" Alright then, Dawn you got the job. Let me know his deal in a couple days, but the sooner the better." Dawn nodded. "Alright, I better get you guys back to school." The five of them left the house and Draco followed once they got outside.

As they were walking, someone came out of a near by cemetery, and Buffy thinking it was a vampire, punched them hard in the face. This totally stunned Draco, but the others just winced slightly. Then just as quickly as Buffy had hit the girl her hand was over her mouth. "Ohmigod Faith!" Buffy said exclaimed surprised, but her expression quickly changed to anger. She had not forgotten everything Faith had done to her.

" 's okay, B. Lucky for me you still hit like you used to." Faith said giving an awkward smile. "Hey Dawnie."

"Faith." Dawn said coldly. She was equally angry at Faith for all the problems she had caused Buffy over the years.

"You pissed at me too?!" Faith said slightly surprised. "Look, I'm sorry okay! I screwed up I know."

"What are you doing here?" Buffy asked. Buffy and Dawn had completely forgotten about the others, and Faith didn't even see them.

"Well, Angel said you might need a little help." Faith said cautiously.

"So they broke you out of jail?!" Buffy was practically yelling now, and Dawn was just a livid. Draco had _never_ seen her like this, neither had the others.

"Look B., weather or not we get along, the world still needs saving."

"Not by a murderer."

"I'm done with that B. Plus it's not like I meant to kill the guy to begin with. We both thought he was a- Hello." Faith had suddenly become aware of the other kids. "Who are they?"

"They go to some magic school with Dawn, and they're helping us do research for the upcoming apocalypse." Buffy said. "I have to get them back to school. You can just head back to the house-"

"No way B. Not with out you. They'll kill me."

"And what makes you think I won't kill you?"

"Oh, I know you would, but your too good for that."

"Alright, fine. Let's go. We need to have a very long talk when we get to my house."

"Oh, one more thing." Faith pulled an envelope out of her jacket pocket. "This is from Angel." Buffy took the letter from Faith, and opened it. A wide smile spread across her face.

"Thank you, Faith." Buffy gave Faith a genuine smile, and Faith's eyebrows almost disappeared into her forehead from the shock.


	13. Chapter 12 Confrontations

Okay, I am officially done telling you when I'm going to be posting cuz I never have time to post when I say I will. Just know that I defiantly **_will_** be posting. One thing I can tell you is not to expect anything before May 3 cuz I have a huge project due that I have been working on (or supposed to be working) on since February. The point of this is I'm really, really, REALLY sorry it took me so long to update and I'm really sorry that I won't be updating soon.

This story should pick up however because I'm using this one to hand in for my bi-weekly vocab story.

You should also know that the note Faith gave Buffy probably won't be as exciting as I built it up to be.

Changes to Angel; You can think of this one of two ways. Cordy went into a coma after season three, or this takes place after the fourth season of Angel, there was never anything between Angel and Cordy. These things will be more important in later chapters.

I also know what the pairings are going to be, thanx to everyone who gave me suggestions.

/.../thoughts

Chapter 12- Confrontations

Faith did not know what the letter said, and she wasn't going to ask. Right now, Buffy was suddenly on good terms with her and Faith was not dumb enough to ruin that. The six finished their walk to Hogwarts with out saying a word.

The whole time Buffy was replaying the letter Angel wrote her in her mind;

/Dear Buffy,

Something really bad is headed your way. I know you may not be happy to see Faith, but believe me, she's better and your going to need her. I'll keep going through my contacts to find everything I can about someone who would have removed the vampire invitation.

Buffy, I hope you know that if you ever need me I'll be here. I know it's not always easy being together but maybe someday... for now just know that I'm always here for you. I'm going to stop over sometime at the end of the week. I should have information for you by then.

Love always,

Angel

Okay so it's not the hugest deal, but it's good to know he' s there. This thing must be bad though, I mean with Angel looking into Sunnydale problems./

Once the kids were safely inside ("B, why are you sending them into an abandoned building?" Faith asked). Buffy and Faith then made their way back to Revello Drive. Buffy knew the confrontation would not be pleasant.

"Hey guys I'm back." Buffy called as she walked into the house. She headed right toward the kitchen where she was sure Xander would be sitting, and sure enough she was right. Faith followed her lead.

"Hey Buff- Oh God!" Xander said spotting Faith.

"Good to see you too Xander." Faith said, forcing a smile.

"Buffy what is she doing here?" Xander asked. Buffy was about to answer when another voice was heard from the dining room. Giles had just come down stairs.

"Dear Lord." Giles said. "What is going on here?" He demanded of Buffy.

"If I could talk you would all know what she was doing here by now." Buffy said irritated. Everyone shut up. "Thank you. Angel sent Faith here to help us. He said we would need her." Anya, who had walked in on the middle of the conversation, yet caught enough to know why Faith was there, asked the next question.

"So you don't kill people anymore?"

"Nah, I'm over that phase." Faith replied.

" Oh, good. Then we're glad you can help!" Anya said enthusiastically, thinking this is what Giles would say.

"We all need to talk." Giles said stressed out. They all headed for the living room. Meanwhile, at Hogwarts, Dawn was being bombarded with questions about Faith, which she was doing her best to answer.

Thursday morning at Hogwarts

"So are you going to talk to Malfoy today?" Harry asked Dawn as he glanced across the Great Hall at Malfoy.

"I guess I might as well. Better sooner then later." Dawn said reluctantly. The four talked though the rest of breakfast. As soon as Malfoy left the Hall, Dawn followed. Draco knew she was there, but he kept walking. He finally turned and entered and empty classroom, and Dawn followed.

"What do you want?" Malfoy asked with a sneer.

"What is your problem?!" Dawn started. "For all you know I wanted to ask you out."

"Did you?" Draco asked doubtfully.

"Do I look like I'm crazy? I really just wanted to know why you can't be nice to anyone." Dawn said making with the small talk. Dawn looked at Malfoy obviously waiting for a reply. "Well?"

"Why do you care anyway?"

"Because I do." She waited a beat and she could tell he wasn't buying it. "Okay, what I really want to know is if you told your parents where the school is?" Draco had no idea what he was expecting her to ask, but it wasn't that. He heard her voice get sadder. He also noticed the worry on her face. His whole attitude suddenly changed. His voice got considerably kinder.

"No. I would never do that." He waited a moment deciding what he should tell her. Eventually he decided the truth. "I take it Potter and his crew have filled you in on everything my family and I have done over the past five years." Dawn nodded. "The truth is I didn't care. I knew what my father had been but I really didn't understand it. This summer my father did a lot of – bad things. Really bad things. I wouldn't dare tell him where we are. If I did, I don't even want to think about what would happen." He looked up at Dawn. She was shocked. "What you thought I would want to be like my father?"

"Well I just thought- yeah, I though you would want to be like your dad."

"Well I don't. I want nothing to do with it. But I really don't have a choice.

"Why not?"

"Because when I go home over Christmas I'm going to have the Dark Mark burned into me." He said resentfully.

"'Kay, still new Dark what?" Draco smiled slightly at Dawn's cluelessness.

"It's a mark that all the Death Eaters have." Dawn got a disgusted look on her face.

"And they burn it into you!" She said incredulously.

"Yeah." Draco had no idea why he was telling her this. It might have just been because she was the one person he _could_ tell. She was the only one willing to listen to him.

"You don't have to get that mark thing." Dawn said.

"Yes, I do. I already told you I don't have a choice." Draco said looking at the floor.

"I can help." When Dawn said this Draco looked up at her. She was so beautiful. He could tell she really did want to help him, but this went against everything he was ever taught. She was a mudbl- a muggleborn.

"There's nothing _you _can do."

"Yes there is. Can you meet me in the Entry Hall tonight at five?" He nodded. "Great! See you then." Before he new it she was gone.

When Dawn got back to Gryffindor Tower she simply told the others that Malfoy didn't tell his father where the school was. She also told them that they could have the night off, she would just be going back to the house to check up on things. The others were very grateful for the night off and did not question it.


	14. Chapter 13 Help

Right now it's 7:40 am (eastern) and my little sister has me up because it's Easter. So Happy Easter you get another chapter.

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Chapter 13- Help

After making sure that the other Gryffindors would not wait up for her and would be in the common room long enough for her to meet Malfoy and get out, Dawn headed for the Entry Hall.

"Come on." She said as soon as he got there.

"Summers, where exactly is it we are going?" He asked.

"To people who can help." She was purposely being vague to see how much he trusted her, and Draco couldn't help it, he did trust her so he simply followed. When they got outside her house, he had to ask.

"Where are we?"

"My house." She said casually.

"The people who can help me live with you?!" He asked incredulously.

"Yeah." She said just as casually before pushing open the door. "Buffy, I'm here." Dawn called as she walked in the door. However it was Willow who came down the stairs.

"Hey Dawnie, who's your friend." Willow asked looking at Draco.

"This is Draco Malfoy." Willow shook his hand while shooting Dawn a look that clearly said ' Isn't he supposed to be our suspect?' but Dawn continued. "He needs our help."

"Oh, okay." Willow said relaxing a little. "Buffy and Giles went to get some stuff to make a training room in the basement. Xander's in the kitchen."

"Thanks Willow." Dawn said before leading Draco into the kitchen. Draco's head was spinning, he had never been in a muggle house before. When they walked in the kitchen they found Xander leaning against the countertop eating.

"Hey Dawnmister! Who is you Spike-like friend?" Xander asked as soon as they walked in the kitchen. Just after Dawn had introduced Draco to Xander, Buffy and Giles walked in the back door. Apparently Buffy thought it would be better if they brought the stuff in the back because it was closer to the basement.

"Where is Faith?! If she is still asleep she is so gonna get her ass kicked." Buffy said as she came though the door with her arms loaded with bags.

"Don't worry B, that would never happen." Faith said as she came into the room. "So Dawn, who's your new friend?" She asked.

"This is Draco Malfoy." Dawn said addressing the group.

"Wait!" Xander exclaimed. "Is this the same Draco Malfoy who was our prime suspect a few days ago?" Dawn nodded. "Okay, just checkin'."

"Dawn, where are Harry, Ron and Hermione?" Buffy said, impatiently.

"I gave them the night off." Dawn said slowly. Then, after seeing the look on Buffy's face she continued. "Draco's not our guy, but he does need our help." Buffy gave Dawn another look. "Just hear him out okay." Dawn said exasperatedly. Draco couldn't believe that Dawn was standing up for him.

Buffy thought about this for a minute. "Fine. Scoobies in the living room." Buffy said eventually looking to the others who nodded. Once everyone was comfortable in the living room Buffy turned to Draco. "Spill."

"It's a long story," Draco started, but Dawn cut him off.

"His dad's evil and he doesn't want to be, but his dad is forcing him." Dawn said quickly.

"Apparently not that long." Xander said matter-of-factly.

"What does you dad do?" Buffy asked, ignoring Xander.

"He's a Death Eater."

"Oh. Okay. What does he want you to do?" Buffy asked.

"Be a Death Eater." Draco said obviously.

"I get that, but how does he make you be a Death Eater?"

"He wants me to have the Dark Mark burned into me over Christmas holiday." Draco said quickly.

"Burned?!" Buffy asked slightly shocked.

"Yeah. Whenever Voldemort wants his Death Eaters all he has to do is touch on mark and every mark will burn black.

"The more I hear about this guy the more I hate him" Buffy said.

"How exactly can you help me?" Draco asked.

"That's kinda the thing we do." Xander said, while Willow nodded vigorously.

"Which is?"

"Kill the demons of Sunnydale, and save the world." Xander replyed.

"But the world savage usually only happens about once a year." Willow added. Draco wasn't sure if this was a joke or not but before he had time to question anything someone unexpected showed up.

"Slayer!" Spike yelled as he came in the house. "Peaches is here."

"Oh great the return of Dead Boy." Xander said getting smiles from most.

"He can't come in." Spike continued with a smug smile. "And what is he doin' here." Spike asked referring to Malfoy.

"Come in Angel." Dawn yelled.

"He needs our help." Buffy said answering Spike's question. Just then Angel walked in.

"Buffy how come he has an invitation into your house and I didn't?" Angel said a little hurt.

"Well talk in a second." Buffy said before turning to Dawn and Draco. "You two need to get back to school, we'll come up with a plan for you later Draco. Spike, walk them back and take Faith." Buffy walked over to the steps and hollered for Faith to come up. She headed down stairs to set up the training room while the Scoobies had their meeting.

"Yeah B – hey Angel."

"Hi Faith. You doing okay."

"Five by Five."

"Good."

"B, you need me for something?" Faith asked turning her attention to Buffy."

"Yeah, go with Spike to take them back to school, then do a sweep, I think one might be rising in Restfield."

"You got it B."

"You know I can do this alone Buffy." Spike said defensively.

"I know but someone needs to do a sweep anyway and your just heading back to school." Spike nodded reluctantly.

"Hey Spike!" Xander said. "Before you leave did Anya say anything about me?"

"Yeah, now that you mention it she did." Xander perked up. "It was something like 'if she had her powers back she would give you back that funny disease you had on Thanksgiving a few years back." Spike said with a smile.

"All of you! Out! I need to talk to Angel _alone_." Buffy said losing her patience

"Chill B, we're leavin'" Faith said leading Dawn and Draco out the door. Spike brought up the rear.

"Nice to see you again Peaches." Spike said before leaving. Angel let out a low growl. Angel then turned to Buffy.

"Did you just put your sister in Spike's care?" Angel said confused. Buffy then launched in to an explanation. She told him about Spike and his soul ( Oh, well, that's great, everybody's got a soul now. You know I started it. The whole having a soul. Before it was the cool new thing). She also filled Angel in on everything that was going on in Sunnydale. Angel then gave her all the information he had on Voldemort. They spent most of the night talking and going through the information. However, Buffy did ask Angel for one favor.


	15. Chapter 14 Old Enemies

I know I said I wouldn't be posting for a while, but I need two more chapters for my vocab story due Thursday.

Tanydwr- Yes, this will be a Draco/ Dawn fic. I know these are even more common the Dawn/Harry, which I was not writing because I thought it was over done, but I like it, and more importantly, a lot of other peeps like it too!!

Anyway, here's chapter 14.

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Chapter 14- Old Enemies

When Draco and Dawn got back to Hogwarts, he had about a million questions for Dawn. Dawn decided to take him to the Room of Requirement, like Harry had done with her, so they could talk. Draco's first question was one that he had been dying to ask since the first DADA class.

"How do you know Spike?" He asked trying not to sound too eager.

"He was my sister's enemy when she was in High School." Dawn said smiling. There was a pause where Draco took a moment to figure out which question he would ask next.

"Dawn, how is it that people who are hardly older then twenty, with the exception of Giles, going to be able to help me?"

"Well for starters two other guys in that room hit twenty a long, long time ago. But helping people is what they do. Just trust me."

"I do." He said so softly she didn't hear it. Dawn got up and looked out the window and when she did her eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"Oh shit!" Dawn exclaimed.

"What?" Draco asked concerned. He never did find out what because when he got up to look out the window Dawn was already out the door and he had to run to keep up with her. "Dawn what's going on?" Draco asked as he ran next to her.

"Knights of Byzantium." Dawn said softly. Dawn raced down to the dungeons, which was where Spike's room was. "Spike! It's me open up!" She yelled as she banged on his door. Spike opened his door.

"What's wrong Bit?" He asked seeing the look on her face.

"Knights of Byzantium. outside." She said urgently. Spike's face quickly changed to the same concerned look that Dawn was wearing.

"Oh we've got to get you to Buffy." Spike then turned his attention to Malfoy. "Get to bed Malfoy!" Spike said. Draco didn't really want to leave Dawn, as worried as she was, but he turned to go anyway. Then Dawn grabbed his arm.

"Spike he's involved. I can't just let him go to bed knowing those guys are out there and not knowing why." Spike considered what Dawn had said for a moment then nodded. Spike led them out of the school and through Restfield Cemetery.

"We need to find Faith. If these guys are after you again we're gonna need a little more muscle then just me." Spike said knowing he would never admit that to anyone else.

"Spike we so don't have time." Dawn said. Spike knew she was right and headed out the opposite exit of the cemetery. Then they heard the sound of a hand punching through dirt. Dawn and Spike turned around and saw a vampire pull itself out of it's grave. "Looks like Faith never got that vamp." Dawn said in her tiny voice.

"As much as I usually enjoy beating the crap out of you, I'm in a bit of an emergency so, Dawn stake." Spike said turning to Dawn.

"Why don't you have one?!" Dawn asked.

"Cuz I only take one around when I'm patrolling with Buffy. I wouldn't want to fall on it now would I." Spike said while beating the vampire. "Don't tell me you don't have one!" Dawn eventually found a stake in her bag and tossed it to Spike who caught it easily and dusted him. "And you, Malfoy, owe me five galleons. Now let's get outta here."

Dawn turned to Draco. "We need to move fast." Draco nodded and swallowed all of the new questions that had just formed in his head and ran after Dawn, who was following Spike. Eventually, they made it back to Buffy's house.

"Well, we made it. With only one vamp surprisingly." Spike said when they reached the door to Buffy's house. Then he pushed it open. "Hello kiddies, where back." Spike called through the house.

"Spike what are you-" Buffy started, then spotted the others, "what are all of you doing here?"

"Three words," Spike responded, "Knights of Byzantium." Buffy's eyes widened.

"Shit!"

"Buffy what's the matter?" Angel asked coming out of the kitchen.

"Alot. I'll tell you in a second." Then Buffy turned to Draco. "What is he doing here?" Buffy asked Spike.

"Dawn said he was 'involved.'" Spikes said including air quotes.

"Okay, whatever, we have bigger problems now." Then Buffy started giving orders. "Dawn and Draco, get in the basement and whatever you do, don't come out. Spike find Faith and fill her in on everything while you go and find Xander then Anya, we're gonna need everyone on board tonight." Spike nodded and headed back out the door. "Come on Angel, I'll fill you in." With that, Buffy lead Angel to the living room to fill him in on the Knights, leaving Dawn and Draco to head to the basement.

Dawn sat down on the couch, it had been placed there recently for people to sit in the new training room, and looked at the floor. She was clearly nervous that the others were not going to be able to keep the Knights off of her trail this time. Draco sat down next to her. "Dawn, what's going on?"

"So much more then I can explain." She looked up at him and she knew after what had just happened he deserved an explanation. So Dawn launched into the story about Glory and how she was after her along with the knights. Dawn did her best to make it sound as if she was the target because her sister was the slayer. She also left out the part about Buffy dying to save the world. Those things were just too much for her to share right now, and she still didn't completely know Draco's deal.

Meanwhile, Buffy had sent out a search party looking for the Knights. She had left Faith and Angel behind to watch Dawn and Draco. It was about two o'clock in the morning until they got back. Of course the first thing Buffy did was question Angel about Dawn. After being told that she was okay, Buffy headed quietly down to the basement, just for reassurance, that Dawn was safe. What she found was Dawn and Draco fast asleep on the couch. Dawn's head was resting on Draco's shoulder and Draco had his arm around Dawn. Buffy snuck back upstairs with a small smile on her face.

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Just a little note: Dawn and Draco did not plan to fall asleep that way, they just self-consciously ended up like that. More will be explained later.

Look for another chapter on Wednesday.


	16. Chapter 15 Vamps at Hogwarts

Thanx to everyone who reviewed. They really made my day! Anyway, not much more to say, so here's the next chap.

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Chapter 15- Vamps at Hogwarts

The next morning Buffy hollered down the basement steps and woke up Dawn and Draco. They both were slow to wake up. Once they did, they realized the position they were now in. Dawn smoothly slid over to the other side of the couch, and she was not going to lie, she really didn't mind waking up like that. Draco sat on the other end of the couch thinking the same thing.

They really didn't have time to talk about this, because they had to get back to school. This was a little more complicated then it sounded because they had to go back separately so no one in the school got suspicious that Draco was associating with a muggle. If anyone saw, it was likely that the news would make it back to his father before lunch.

Draco headed back to school first with Anya who had to go there to work, he still wasn't sure what she did though. Draco had his own room in the Sytherin tower, because there were too many boys in his year to put in one room. This made it easy for Draco to simply go right in to breakfast with out anyone noticing he was gone all night.

A few minutes after Draco and Anya left, Dawn and Buffy followed. Buffy had to go see Professor Dumbledore, and even if she didn't she was _not_ letting Dawn walk to school on her own with the Knights of Byzantium out looking for her. Once they reached Hogwarts, Dawn headed into the Great Hall and Buffy continued down the hallway to Professor Dumbledore's office.

Once Dawn entered the Great Hall she scanned the Slytherin table for Draco, to make sure he got back to school okay, and that no one was bothering him about where he had been. Once she saw that he was fine she then took her seat at the Gryffindor table. As soon as she sat down, she was bombarded with questions.

"Where were you?" Harry asked as soon as she was seated.

"I got a little tied up at home." Dawn vaguely responded.

"We were really worried about you." Hermione said to her.

"Was there a fight?" Ron asked a little too enthused.

"Not really." Dawn said, her mind clearly elsewhere.

"Well, we're glad your back." Ron said. "We better get to DADA." The others agreed and they all headed out of the Hall. On the way Ron made the mistake of bringing up the great job the house elves were doing on keeping this new place clean. Of coarse, this set Hermione off. The rest of the way all she did was yell at Ron about how much the house elves needed to do and that he just took it for granted. Dawn was grateful though, because she now had the opportunity to talk to Harry.

"I need to talk to you." She said seriously. Harry caught the looks of extreme seriousness and nervousness in her face.

"What's the matter?" He asked concerned.

"Not here, during break." Dawn said simply. "We just need to find some way to keep Ron and Hermione busy for a little while."

"Leave it to me." Harry said. They arrived at the classroom at that moment and entered the room. Soon after that, Spike started class.

"Now, today we will be continuing with the dangers of Sunnydale-" Spike started, but he was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Hello, Spike." Angel said from the back of the room.

"Oh, bloody hell." Spike said looking at the ceiling. "What are you doing here. Figured you and Buffy would be sitting around making googley eyes at each other."

"Well, Buffy told me that you were teaching, and I just couldn't leave with out seeing it for myself." The class was very interested in the exchange.

"Listen Peaches, I'm fascinated that you've taken an interest in my new profession, but go away." Spike said exasperatedly.

"Well, I have a few questions first." Then Angel turned to Dawn. "Dawn, what did he tell you to call him? Professor 'the Bloody'?" Dawn smirked.

"No, he said if we called him Professor anything that he would rip our throats out." Dawn responded calmly. Angel then redirected his attention back to Spike.

"A hundred plus years, and that's the best you could come up with, William?" Angel said with an evil smile. At this point Hermione was unable to keep her hand out of the air.

"Yes Hermione." Spike said.

"What exactly does he mean by 'a hundred plus years'?" Hermione asked Spike. Spike just rolled his eyes and spoke to Angel.

"Alright Angel, as your not going away, you might as well get up here and help me." Spike said resentfully.

"What exactly are you teaching them?" Angel asked as he made his way to the front of the room.

"The dangers in Sunnydale." Spike said simply.

"Do you really expect to cover _all_ the dangers of Sunnydale in one year?" Angel waited a beat. "Alright I'll help." He said and made his way to the front of the class. Now Spike turned to the class.

"How many of you still don't think there are vampires in Sunnydale?" Spike asked with a small smile. Every one, with the exception of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dawn, and to everyone's surprise, Draco, raised their hands. Spike and Angel both smiled at the class, and Dawn smiled as well. "Well, how many of you would believe that there are two vampires in this room right now?" As expected, the only person who raised their hand was Dawn. "And why would you say that Dawn?" Spike asked, his smile widening. Dawn rolled her eyes knowing that Spike had been waiting to do this since he started teaching.

"Because you and Angel are both Vampires." Dawn said simply. At these words most of the class started to laugh. They stopped when they saw that neither Spike nor Angel were laughing. Once the class settled down, Spike asked another question.

"Now Dawn, please tell the class other names we might also be recognized by." He said as he leaned back on the desk behind him.

"Spike is William the Bloody, and got the name 'Spike' because he used to torture his victims with railroad spikes." Dawn said all of this very dully. "And Angel is Angelus."

"What, no story about me Dawn?" Angel said in mock hurt.

"I'll tell your story if you want, Peaches." Spike said getting excited.

"Don't you dare!" Angel said morphing. The class gasped. Angel knew Spike would not tell his life's story the way he would want it told.

"Oh, really? And what, exactly, are you going to do about it?" Spike asked also morphing. Both Spike and Angel were preparing to fight and were standing face to face when all of the sudden, out of no where, a sword flew right in between both of their faces and hit the board. All eyes moved toward the entrance, where Buffy was standing.

"What was that, like, five minutes?" She asked Spike and Angel. "Gotta say I'm impressed. I thought one of you would have been dust by now." She said matter-of-factly.

"What are you doing here?!" Spike asked, starting to get annoyed that people kept walking in on his class.

"Oh, like the two of you could be left alone, in a room, full of impressionable minds. Some one needed to supervise you." Buffy said causally.

"You know we've got a lot of years on you Buffy." Angel said playfully.

"Well, if you want I can show your class how _strong_ a 'young' person can be." Buffy said exaggerating 'strong' hoping Angel and Spike would get the message.

"No." Spike said. "We are not going there. I _am_ trying to teach a class here." Spike said motioning the class.

"Never thought I'd see the day when you would take something seriously Spike." Angel commented. Spike simply glared at both of them.

"And you knew he was coming!" Spike said to Buffy.

"Well, yeah, I thought he might be able to help you with your class." Buffy said shrugging. "Anyway, Angel I need to talk to you." She said seriously.

"Good," Spike said, "Slayer and Peaches, go flirt in the hall. I have a class to teach." Buffy and Angel both sent Spike deathly looks, then headed for the hall. This made Dawn very curious.

"What is it Buffy?" Angel asked as soon as Buffy shut the door.

"You need to go back to L.A." She said.

"Why?" Angel asked worried. She handed him a note.

"Willow, just sent this to me while I was here." He took the note from her and started to read it, Buffy kept talking. "Cordelia's awake." When Buffy said this Angel's head snapped up to look at her.

"Are you gonna be okay here?" He asked, not wanting to abandon Buffy if she really did need him.

"Go Angel. There's nothing you can do for us right now. Call me and let me know how she's doing." Angel nodded.

"Thanks Buffy." He said.

"Don't worry about it." She said, before he turned and headed for the sewer near the entrance, so he could get back to L.A. with out bursting into flames. Buffy stuck around until Spike was done with Dawn's class. She made the trio and Dawn hang behind for a little bit.

"So, where's the Great Poof?" Spike asked, noticing Angel wasn't there.

"Back to L.A., for now anyway. Cordelia's awake." Buffy said.

"Well there's a lovely turn of events. Vision Girl wakes up just in time to tell us that there is danger, which is something we already know." Spike said irritably.

"Shut up Spike." Buffy said before turning to the others. "We're not gonna do the research thing tonight, but Dawn, why don't you stop by anyway. Faith actually said 'why don't you bring D home." Buffy said Faith's part very pointedly hoping that Dawn would get the message to bring Draco home. Dawn nodded to let Buffy know she understood what she wanted her to do. "Anyway, we'll need help packing."

"Packing? Why would we need to pack?" Dawn asked nervously.

"Because, the Scoobies are moving in." Buffy said with a smile on her face.

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This was one of the hardest chapters to write, so if you don't like it, I'm really sorry, just trust me it will get better.

Good news for you guys. I am going too need about eight more chapters over the next four weeks, so I am going to try to do two chapters a week, but I'm not promising anything!

Don't forget to review!


	17. Chapter 16 Understanding

Here's the next chapter! I've been having a little trouble writing chapter 17, but I'll have three more chapters up by Friday at the latest cuz my vocab story is due on Thursday.

Thanx to : vampy the choosen one, CrMeiNa, brigurl, and Tanydwr for reviewing and an extra special thanx to Me() for reviewing when you normally don't. And everyone else from previous chapters that I didn't put up, thanx. They (like always) made my day.

And DRACOBABE(), When Draco fights, he will look good.

Also, constructive criticism I can take. Suggestions are also good, but don't flame, cuz, like the review I got on 4-27 it'll be ignored, (just thought I'd bring that up cuz didn't say it before).

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Chapter 16 – Understanding

That day, right after Buffy left, Hermione said she was going to the library, and the others had no desire to spend any more time researching the necessary so Hermione went by herself. Ron had decided that he was hungry and headed for the kitchens. Harry and Dawn knew they would never get this opportunity to talk again, so they decided not to go with Ron. Instead they headed for the Room of Requirement.

When they got there, they found the room set up exactly the way it had been for their previous meetings. When they got in the room, Harry took a seat on the couch. Dawn, however, was still full of nervous energy, especially from sitting for the past hour, was pacing back and forth in front of the couch. Harry waited a little, thinking she was trying to figure out what to say. However, when a minute went by and Dawn had not said anything, Harry thought it was best to break the silence himself.

"Dawn." Harry said, but she didn't seem to hear him. "Dawn." He tried again, but still no response. Harry then got up and put himself in Dawn's path. "Dawn." He said gently. She looked up at him.

"Hmm?" Then she realized that he must have been trying to get her attention for sometime. "Oh, sorry."

"What has got you so preoccupied?" He asked.

"It's just-" Dawn finally sat down on the couch, and Harry did the same. "There are these guys, they call themselves the Knights of Byzantium. Their job is to make sure anyone who want to use the key for evil intentions can't get their hands on it. If someone bad wants it, their job is to destroy it." Dawn stopped to let these words sink in.

"So Voldemort truly is after you I suppose." Harry said.

"Looks like it." Dawn said dully. "That's the real reason I stayed at home last night, I ran into those Knight guys." Harry just nodded as he figured out the real meaning of this.

"So," he said slowly, "this means that Voldemort is going to use you to kill me." This statement was followed by an awkward silence as they both realized that Dawn could very well be what kills Harry.

"We don't know that for sure. I mean, Voldemort may not even be who wants me, it could be someone else." Dawn said thinking of other creatures in the world that could use the key to their advantage. "I mean, he wouldn't be the first to be after me. As of now, he's number three, assuming he is after me." Harry knew the Knights were after Dawn as well, but he wanted to know who the other person was. He was just about to ask when Dawn looked at her watch. "We should probably head to Potions." Harry nodded and decided he and Dawn would have to talk about her past some other time.

"When they got to the dungeons, they found Ron and Hermione sitting in the back and they made their way over to them. Little did they know they would not be in those sets much longer. "Today you will be working in pairs, which I will be choosing." Snape said wickedly as he entered the room. "For the next month you will be making the Polyjuice Potion," Ron, Harry and Hermione exchanged looks, "because there are two of you, I do not expect any one to ask me any questions." Then he moved through the room and assigned partners. Harry ended up with Blaise Zabini. This totally surprised him since he knows how much Snape loves putting him with Malfoy. But Snape seemed to think that he needed to 'share the wealth' so he put Dawn with Malfoy. Hermione was stuck with Millicent Bulstrode, and Ron with Pansy Parkinson.

When Dawn sat down the first thing she said was, "Same time, same place." Draco nodded, then made loud snide comments, criticizing the way Dawn was doing everything. One thing that was odd was, Snape didn't come around at all during the class. He just seemed very preoccupied with something he was working on at his desk. After class Ron was the first one to comment on Snape's odd behavior.

"Snape is up to something." He said the instant they were out of his room.

"Ron you have said that every year since first year, and every year he's been _helping_ us." Hermione said exasperatedly.

"He is working for Dumbledore now Ron." Harry added.

"I still think he's up to something." Ron said stubbornly, causing Hermione to roll her eyes and Harry and Dawn to laugh.

The rest of their day was fairly normal. They had Transfiguration, Dawn went to her second year Herbology class, then Dawn had a free period while the others headed to Divination, for Ron and Harry, and Ancient Ruins for Hermione. After dinner, the others headed back to Gryffindor Tower, while Dawn stayed in the Entry Hall to wait for Draco. She didn't have to wait long, a few minutes after everyone had cleared out of the Entry Hall, Draco showed up and the two of them headed for the Summers' house. Once Dawn and Draco were out of Hogwarts, Draco turned to her.

"I'm sorry." He said. Dawn gave him a questioning look.

"For what?" Dawn asked confused.

"For what I said in potions." He said, as if it was obvious.

"Oh, that. What else could you do? We're not supposed to be friends." Dawn said, "Consider yourself forgiven." She added. They walked some of the way in silence before Dawn started another conversation.

"You recover from last nights thrilling activities okay?" She asked with a hint of sarcasm.

"I'm alright." He said simply. Dawn knew he wasn't telling her something.

"Alright, what's up?" She asked.

"What are you talking about?" He responded a little too quickly.

"You are way too quiet. Plus I noticed when you're stressed out about something, you get this little wrinkle right there." She said pointing at his forehead.

"You've known me for two days. How can you possibly know me like that?" He asked. Dawn shrugged.

"I'm just good with people. I _was_ the first person to trust Spike." She said, touching on a topic she knew he would want to talk about.

"You did forget to mention that he was a _vampire._" Draco said trying to change the subject.

"Hey, no fair changing the subject. We can talk about that later. Right now, we are talking about what's bugging _you_." She said. Draco nodded and decided it was best to tell her the truth.

"I'm just not sure about all this." He said.

"All what?" Dawn asked, thinking she already knew the answer.

"I am about to go against my _father._ He is the one person I have always looked up too, and now, I can't." He didn't really expect Dawn to understand, especially when she had her sister to look up to. Meanwhile Dawn understood exactly what Draco was feeling. Like his role model had died.

"You feel like up until now, you've had a road map. Things to do every second that had to do with your father, but now you've lost the map." Draco looked at Dawn, who also looked up. She never stopped surprising him. "It gets easier. Just when you think you'll never find the map, another one turns up. It's not exactly the same, but it'll still get you where you wanna go. And if you realize you were holding the map upside down, and were heading in the wrong direction, you just have to flip it over, and you're back on the right track." They walked the rest of the way in silence, with Draco realizing he had so much more to learn about Dawn.

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Kinda short I know, but more will come soon. I'm gonna go watch some Buffy and see if I feel inspired. Don't forget to Review


	18. Chapter 17 Planning and Sharing

CharmedChick- I'm glad you liked my road map analogy, I based it off of what Buffy said to Angel in Forever from season five. I'm also glad I got the 'happy medium'. That's exactly what I was going for, the first time I wrote it, he was way too mushy.

And of course thanks to brigurl who has reviewed, like, every chapter.

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Chapter 17 – Planning and Sharing

When the pair eventually arrived at the house, they were slightly surprised to find the entire Scooby gang, including Spike, Faith and Anya, assembled in the living room. Dawn also noticed many suitcases in the dining room which meant the gang was already to move in.

"You guys, get in here and sit down, we don't have a lot of time." Buffy said as soon as the two of them walked in the door. They did what she told them to do. "Alright, here's how it's gonna work. For now, there is nothing I can do about your father. He doesn't know you're here, so for now, you should be alright. And with all of us around, if he comes looking for you he'll wish he didn't. From now on, any letters you get from your father you should give to us. For now, he doesn't know where Hogwarts is, but if he finds out, we need to know about it." Draco nodded.

"I just got a letter from him yesterday. He was telling me what Voldemort is up to. He said he is looking for the Key. I did some research and I found out what the Key is." He said as he handed Buffy some papers with the information he found about the Key. The Scoobies did their best not to react to this news.

"Thanks Draco. We'll start looking in to this." Buffy told him then turned to Dawn. "Dawn, once we get back to Hogwarts I don't want you leaving." Dawn was about to protest but Buffy kept her silent with a look. Dawn just crossed her arms and slumped back into the couch her and Draco were sitting on. There was a few seconds of silence, then Dawn spoke up.

"Buffy, why did you have us over here just to tell us that?" Dawn asked.

"One reason, I didn't want Harry, Ron and Hermione seeing this meeting. And the other thing is we need to fill Draco in on some stuff." Buffy said. Dawn shot Buffy a look, but Buffy ignored her and directed her attention to Draco. "See the reason we can help you, and have helped people in the past is because, I'm a Slayer." Buffy said. Draco was a little stunned. He was about to question her when Faith spoke up.

"You forgettin' someone here B?" She asked.

"Faith's a Slayer too." Buffy told Draco. There was a moment of silence before Draco spoke.

"Even if the Slayer did exists, there would not be two of them." He said as if this this proved that they were making this up.

"That was the intent. But there is a loophole." Buffy explained. "When one Slayer dies the next one is called, but if one Slayer dies and is brought back to life, then there are two Slayers." Buffy said hoping he believed her. Draco looked at the group, then at Dawn who nodded.

"Which one of you died?" He asked. Buffy raised her hand.

"Drowned. But Xander brought me back with CPR." Buffy said. She was not going to bring up last year's death, she still wasn't completely over it. Draco nodded then turned to the group.

"So what are all of you." He asked the group. Spike started.

"You all ready know what I am. Oh, and by the way mate, you still owe me five galleons." Spike said with a smirk. Anya went next.

"I'm an ex-Vengeance Demon." Anya said proudly.

"Ex?!" Xander asked.

"Yes, Xander ex. D'Hoffryn took my powers away. He said I went soft. Are you happy now?" Anya asked annoyed. Xander didn't know what to say, so he just didn't say anything. Buffy brought everyone's attention over to Willow.

"Willow is a very powerful Wicca." Buffy said. "And Giles here, is my Watcher."

"What about you?" Draco asked Xander.

"Oh, I am a carpenter." Xander said, Draco just gave one nod.

"Well, we should get moving I wanna get to Hogwarts before I have vampires to worry about. Wills, can you shrink the suitcases?" Buffy asked turning to her friend.

"Sure." Willow said. Then she went over and shrunk the suitcases with a wave of her hand. Then picked them up and stuck them in her purse.

"We should head out." Buffy said to the others. Everyone got up and headed out the door.

"Buffy?" Spike said. "I'm gonna wait here till dark."

"How did you get here in the first place?" Buffy asked.

"I don't want to talk about it." He responded. Buffy told him he could wait, with a smirk on her face.

The group was almost at Hogwarts. Draco and Dawn were in the front, and Buffy and Faith were bringing up the rear. Willow and Giles were in front of her talking about her progress and in front of them was a bickering Xander and Anya. All of the sudden Three Knights jumped out of the cemetery they were passing. Buffy and Faith leapt into action. The second Buffy had the opportunity she turned around and told Dawn and Draco to go to the school. Draco turned to leave, but he realized Dawn did not do the same. She was suddenly reliving the events that happened the last time she met the Knights, when they were cornered in an abandoned shack as well as the events after she got out of the shack. Suddenly she felt someone tug her arm. It was Draco.

"Dawn, we have to go." He said urgently. He pulled her around and they ran up to the school. Draco did not let go of Dawn's arm. He wanted to be sure she was there. When they got in to the school, Dawn tried to go right up to Gryffindor Tower, but Draco, who had still not let go of her arm, would not let her. "You don't get to just walk away after what just happened." He said. Dawn just nodded she knew he was right. Draco then led Dawn, not to the Room of Requirement, but to another part of the castle, a place where Dawn had never been.

Draco stopped outside of a small door in the east wing of the castle. Inside was a small, cozy looking room with a couch, chair and a fire going in the fireplace. It reminded Dawn of a little cottage. "I found this place the first week here, when I was walking around the castle. I don't think anyone else knows it's here. While everyone else is in their common rooms, I usually come here." He told her, and then he led her over and sat her down on the couch. "Dawn, from the look on your face out there I think there is more to those Knights then you're telling."

Dawn took a deep breath then started talking, which soon turned in to rambling. "I know a lot more then I've told you. That was mostly because at first I wasn't even sure I could trust you, and so much more has gone in the past year then I can even start to explain and those guys have been after me sure and that is all due to the Monks and then there' s also the part where I'm not even real-" Draco cut her off here.

"What do you mean you're not real? You look real to me." He said waiting for a response. Dawn took another deep breath and looked into his eyes.

"What I'm going to tell you, you can't tell anyone. No one is supposed to know okay?" Draco nodded. It meant a lot to him that she trusted him enough to tell him this. "Okay. Two years ago, this god, Glory was looking for the key. A few Monks had it. They gave it form. Made it human and sent it to the Slayer, so she could protect it, in the form of a sister." Dawn said remembering the words that Spike had read to her from Giles's journal. Draco was so shocked he couldn't put words together. "They made me from my sister." Dawn continued. "They changed all of our memories. I remember being around for sixteen years, but I really wasn't. I've only been around for two.

"The Knights of Byzantium only seem to show up when someone bad wants the Key. Their job is to destroy it. Last time the person who wanted me was Glory. She wanted the Key to return to her dimension. And she got me. There was this whole ritual where she had to bleed me to open a portal to Hell. The portal would only close when the blood stopped flowing, which was basically when I was dead and Hell would be on earth."

"So it didn't work." Draco said hoarsely.

"Yeah it did. She got me up on a really tall tower and tied me up there. Then Buffy and the Scoobies came. Giles ultimately killed Glory, and that is another story. Anyway, Glory, being a god, had followers. Spike had almost gotten me down when one of her followers pushed the tower and cut me." Dawn had tears in her eyes now as she relived the experience. Sure she had been thrown some bad times but to her this was the worst. "Buffy came up just after Glory's follower started the ritual and killed him, but it was too late. The only way to close the portal was for me to jump, but Buffy wouldn't let me. I was made from her, so our blood was the same. She jumped in the portal and it closed, but she also died." Tears were silently streaming down Dawn's face now as she thought of her sister's dead body lying on the ground. "Last year, Willow brought her back, because it was a mystical death she could do this. But Buffy was in heaven. She was happy and her friends took her away from that." Dawn fell silent. Draco did the only thing he could think of. He pulled Dawn into his arms and let her cry, until she eventually fell asleep. From this point on, he new he had to help keep her save.

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Okay, I might have over done this last Dawn/Draco part a little bit, but oh well. Please review.


	19. Chapter 18 Scoobies at Hogwarts

Okay, here is another chapter. I'm gonna try to get one more up tonight but I'm not promising.

This chapter is more of the 'typical-everybody-has-it' chapter but I don't care cuz I want it too.

For Faith's last name, were gonna say it's Morgan cuz people have used that a lot in fanfics.

brigurl- Thanx for caring! I'm feeling better now and I did enjoy my day off.

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Chapter 18 – Scoobies at Hogwarts

Back in Dumbledore's office, Buffy was having a panic attack. "What if she got kidnapped again? Or what if the Knights got to them before they got back to the castle?! Or what if-"

"Buffy calm down." Giles said. "We don't know for sure if something bad _has_ happened to them." Buffy didn't seem convinced.

"Ya know Buffy, if we can get a map of the school, I could do a locator spell, that way we would know if they are in the building or not." Willow suggested.

"Thanks Will." Buffy said greatfully as Dumbledore provided them with a map of the school. Dumbledore had found that when it came to Buffy it was best to let her figure out her own way to do things.

"Findate ellos, Dawn y Draco." When Willow had finished the spell, two tiny yellow dots appeared on the map in a room in the east side of the school. "See Buffy, their safe." Willow was saying as Buffy grabbed the map and headed for the door. "Buffy they're fine." Willow emphasized.

"I know, but, I want to make sure." Buffy told her friends.

"Witch is right Buffy. She's in the castle, if she needed you she'll come looking for you." Spike said.

"I don't know you guys." Buffy said not backing down.

"Alright B, how 'bout this; we go up there, stick our slayer ears up to the door, and if something's goin' down in there that shouldn't be, we bust in, if not we back off." Faith proposed. Buffy considered this and eventually agreed.

The others stayed back to make arrangements with Dumbledore while Faith and Buffy headed down the hall. Faith decided to strike up a conversation. "You know B, you are gonna have to let Dawn do more things for her self."

"She's only sixteen Faith." Buffy responded.

"And what were you doing when you were sixteen? I think it was some thing along the lines of saving the world."

"Yeah, but I had help." Buffy retorted.

"You had an aging high school librarian and two to four other sixteen year olds." Faith said. Buffy opened her mouth to talk but Faith cut her off. "And Angel doesn't count 'cause you had to kill him."

"Well if you wanna play that way, then yeah, I was saving the world when I was sixteen, but I didn't have a choice." Buffy argued.

"And you're telling me if you had a choice you'd be the good little girl who stays in her room and does exactly what her mom tells her to do?"

"Okay, okay, I get your point, I just don't want her to get hurt." Buffy said giving in.

"Yeah, well Angel didn't and still doesn't want to see you get hurt, but he let you live your own life." Faith said. Buffy stayed quiet for a little. She knew Faith was right, and she hated it. When they eventually reached the small door, both Faith and Buffy pressed their ears against it. And heard no one being beaten by an attacker that was stupid enough to kidnap then hid them in Hogwarts.

When they got to the Gargoyle that would let them up to Dumbledore's office, they found Dumbledore and the gang waiting for them. "I thought it would be best if I took you to your rooms." Faith and Buffy nodded and fell into step with the others behind Dumbledore.

The Scoobies were given their own 'mini tower', which had a room for each Scooby including Spike and Anya who had decided to move in with the others. They also got their own common room. Their 'tower' was located in a small hallway off the Entry Hall behind a picture of the sun. They had decided their passward should be 'Slayer Central'. Once Dumbledore had left and everyone was settled in the rooms they had picked out, they all sat down and did some talking.

"So, Anya, what have you been doing here for the past few weeks?" Xander asked.

"Not that it's any of your business Xander, but I have been going through the school library to see how factual their demonic recourses are, with these kids here, they need to be the best." Anya said.

"And...?" Xander prompted.

"And they're not." Anya said simply, starting to get annoyed. Willow could sense trouble coming so she changed the subject to what they would need to do to fight Voldemort. After awhile, that also got boring and slowly the common room emptied as the Scoobies headed off to bed.

The next morning Draco woke Dawn at five thirty to give her time to get back to her dorm before anyone knew she wasn't in her bed for the second night in a row. As it was really early and Dawn was still very tired she really didn't remember much of what had happened the night before, but part of that was because she didn't want to. When she did get up to her room, she fell back asleep for another two hours, until Hermione woke her up for breakfast.

At breakfast, they all got another surprise. All of the Scoobies were sitting at the staff table. About midway through the meal, Dumbledore stood up and the Hall fell silent. "I know most of you have noticed that there are several new faces at the Staff table this morning. This is due to the fact that we will be adding a few classes to our schedules this year. To my right we have Professors Buffy Summers and Faith Morgan will be teaching Wandless Defense. Next to them, Professors Anyanka and Xander Harris, who will be teaching Demonology. These classes are both required." Anya and Xander looked out raged, Xander leaned over to Faith who was sitting next to him and whispered that that wasn't what they had agreed on. Faith simply shrugged. "To my left we have Professors Willow Rosenberg and Rupert Giles who will be teaching Wandless Magic, this class is optional, if you are interested, see your head of house today, new schedules will be handed out tomorrow.

The four Gryffindors made plans to talk to Professor McGonagall later that day so they could take Wandless Magic. Meanwhile at the Slytherin Table, Draco planned to talk to Snape. His theory was that if he had all of the new professors in class it would not look suspicious if he was seen talking to them.

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Kinda short I know, but I have another one coming either today or tomorrow. Please Review!!!


	20. Chapter 19 Classes

Sorry about not getting this chapter up last night, but I had a track meet and didn't even get home until seven. Then I had to do regular homework, plus make-up work so I didn't get done that until late.

Just to let you know, I'm going to try to get another up by Sunday, but next week is not going to happen cuz I will be in Chicago most of the week (which I am a little bitter about because I will also miss the last episode of Angel. So I have to wait 'till Monday to watch what I taped.) But it's a ten-hour ride there, and a ten-hour ride back, so by then I should have a good amount of chapters written by the time I get back.

Thank you to:

**Immortalwizardelf-fan():** Glad you liked my reasoning for having Malfoy take to optional class and thanx for reviewing.

**WW:** As for how Xander and Anya will teach, you'll just have to wait and see. There was a reason for it.

**Ouatic7:** Glad you like the story. As for the grammar stuff, like I said before my beta reader is having computer problems, not just that, but when her computer does get running again, she'll have, like eight chapters to read for me. And as far as school is concerned, the vocab story has to have twenty of the thirty vocab words we work with in the past two weeks, it's only worth twenty points, one for each word used correctly, the grammar stuff really doesn't count here, she just corrects it for me and I don't lose any points. I usually do read though it once I have it all formatted for the class, because I do want it to be correct, but I won't get to that until after I write this chapter. Anyways, thanks for letting me know where some things are wrong, it'll give me something to look for when I go back and correct it.

**LizaGirl:** Glad you liked the change in location. Thanx for putting me on your author alert and Fav. author list, I feel soo special!!

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Chapter 19 – Classes

When Dawn and the others finished their breakfast, they headed up to the staff table and heard the complaints of Xander and Anya as they approached.

"This is _not_ funny!" Anya was saying.

"This was defiantly not what we agreed on." Xander added.

"Well Xand, ya know Dumbledore is getting up there, musta slipped his mind." Faith said with a smile. Behind her, Buffy was also smiling sweetly.

"Hey guys." Dawn interrupted.

"Hey Dawnie." Buffy said. "Were you surprised?"

"How could you not tell me?!" Dawn said in mock hurt.

"Well, we didn't have things completely worked out until last night." Buffy explained. "Listen, we're staying behind the sun picture to the right of the Entry Hall. The password is 'Slayer Central' if you need to get in." She told the group. They all nodded. Alright, you guys get to class." Dawn rolled her eyes as she thought of all the class Buffy missed when she was at school.

Dawn's classes were starting to bore her. She still had mostly second year classes and they were getting to be really easy. She was hoping that she wasn't the only one who noticed this, but for now she would just have to deal with it.

The next day, when the new schedules were handed out, Dawn was slightly surprised to see that she now had sixth year classes. Not only was Dawn not the only one who thought she was really good at her classes, but it also meant that the Key's power was stronger then many anticipated.

Her first class was Wandless magic. Followed by Wandless Defense. Then after lunch she had Divination. Only Harry and Ron were with her in this class, she had heard things from all three of them about this class, but she was interested to see for herself. Then her day ended with DADA.

Willow was very well prepared for her first class considering she only had one day to prepare. However, she was still incredibly nervous. One thing that made her feel a little bit better was that Dawn and the others were all in her first class. They were also the first ones to show up.

"Hey Willow." Dawn said enthusiastically.

"Hey Dawnie." Willow said in her nervous, high-pitched voice.

"Little nervous there Will?" Dawn asked. Willow nodded. "Don't be, your gonna be fine." Just then Giles walked in the room, his arms full of books.

"Hello you three." Giles said.

"Giles, those books aren't for this class are they?" Dawn asked getting a little nervous.

"Oh, no. I was just up in the library looking for the books with correct demonic facts. This is all of them." Giles said indicating the books he had just put down on the desk at the front of the room.

"That's it!" Hemione said, outraged. "Out of all the demonic books in the library you were able to carry all the books that had correct facts in them?!"

"That I could locate yes. We'll have to look through them later tonight." Just as Giles said this the rest of the class began funneling into the room. Dawn, Harry, Ron, and a still disgruntled Hermione sat in the front row. She had taken the news that the library had false information in it very hard.

"Hello, I'm Willow, not Professor or Rosenberg or anything like that, because that reminds me of my old high school principal. Anyway, this is Professor Giles, and he is going to help me. This is Wandless Magic, which as you signed up for it, you already knew that." Willow paused for a second before she plowed in to her lesson. "Wandless magic can be very powerful. You all have that power in you. What we are going to do today is focus that energy." Then Willow gave everyone a crystal. They were told to focus all of their energy into the center of the crystal. Once they did they found that the rest of the class went by quite quickly. The class left Willow's room feeling extremely relaxed as well.

After their break, they made their way to Buffy's room. When they entered the classroom, they found a room full of mats and some weapons on the wall. The class came in and sat down on the floor. Buffy and Faith started the class with a demonstration. By the time they were done, they had the class's full attention. Which was nice for Buffy, as she was the first to address the class.

"First of all don't even think about calling us 'professor'." She started. "And don't call me Miss Summers, that's what my old high school principal called me, and class when we have time I'll tell you what happened to him. Anyway, just call us Buffy and Faith."

"Now, there is no way your ever gonna be as good as us." Faith said as Buffy rolled her eyes. "But we will teach you an awful lot. This kinda stuff you don't need a wand for. And it always helps when you have a weapon you don't have to reach for."

"Before we get started I just want to point out that you have a break before this class, this is when you can get out of your roby-things and into some more comfortable clothes." Buffy said. "For today, we're just gonna start with some basic exercises." The rest of Buffy and Faith's class was spent working on techniques. Once lunch was over Dawn, Harry and Ron headed for Divination.

Dawn was not in Trelawney's room two minutes when the 'bug lady' came over to her and took her hand. "I see you have had a lot of loss in your past." Trelawney told Dawn, as if she was impressing someone.

"You're supposed to be able to tell the future right, things people don't know yet?" Dawn asked innocently.

"That's correct dear." Trelawney said.

"Well I really didn't need you to tell me about my past, as I was there." Dawn said pointedly. Trelawney stiffened slightly before releasing Dawn's hand and turning away. For the rest of the class, Trelawney seemed to go back to her old habit of predicting Harry's death. After class all Dawn could think about was Cordelia, who gets her _real_ visions from the Powers That Be. It truly amazed Dawn how Trelawney thought she was fooling the class into thinking she had real visions.

When they got to DADA, they took their seats as usual, but Dawn noticed that Draco wasn't in his seat. She decided the only thing she could do was wait until after class to go and find him. "Alright," Spike said, tucking his hands in to the pockets of his black leather duster that he never took off, "today, we're gonna do a little bit about the Vampire Slayers." Dawn and the others were surprised that Spike was doing this. Several students looked as if they were going to object, but Spike cut them off. "Yes, she is real, and as a matter of fact one of 'um is here to talk to you." At that moment Buffy entered the room.

"Hey guys!" Buffy said as she entered the room. Once she got to the front of the room, she turned to address the class. "Before I start I just wanted to let you know the reason for this. Because I am your teacher now, you have a right to know exactly what Faith and I do, and yes, there are two Slayers but I'm not even going to get into the reason why." This explanation for sharing her secret was mainly directed toward Dawn because she knew her sister would be curious. Dawn also had a good idea that the reason Faith wasn't here was because she didn't want to be around if her Slayer past got brought up. "Now, anyone have any questions?" Most of the class was too stunned, after learning that their new teacher was the Slayer, but Hermione who already knew, raised her hand. "Yes Hermione?"

"Can you tell us what happened to your principal?" Buffy smiled.

"Sure thing!" Then she launched into the story about the mayor and the Ascension, which is when the Mayor ate Principal Snyder. The class really seemed to enjoy the story. After that Buffy focused more on what she actually had to do as the Slayer, but she only gave the general outline, nothing else that was specific to her or Faith. This was mainly because they couldn't be considered traditional Slayers, but they liked it that way. Buffy was getting ready to tell the class about the Watcher's Council when Willow walked into the room.

"Hey Buffy, could I talk to you for a minute?" Willow asked.

"Is everything okay?" Buffy asked a little worried.

"I'm not really sure at the moment." Willow said not wanting to alarm the rest of the class. Buffy, however knew that her friend was sure that something was wrong.

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Cliffie!! I know this chap was kinda boring but I really needed to get Dawn through most of her new classes, we'll get back to things apocalyptic next chapter. You'll find out what the problem is and how Xander and Anya are going to teach together.


	21. Chapter 20 Developments

I'm Back!!!! Reasons for lateness; Being very busy, and – oh yeah- a really, really bad computer virus that was recently removed from my computer. I also had writers block issues that were recently resolved. The stuff about my Chicago trip is long overdue and ur just getting it now because of the virus.

Chicago was amazing, it's now my second favorite city and my band and I had a really good time (however that's not what we were saying when we got home at 3:30 Monday morning). And just for future knowledge, if you ever see any buses on the road that say COACH USA avoid them, they almost got us killed countless times and the drivers have no clue what they are doing. They also left us out in the rain (thunder storm) for an hour and a half. We later learned there was also a tornado warning as well (imagine 240 high school kids squeezed under and awning). But other then that the trip was amazing. And if any one ever gets a chance to see THE BLUE MAN GROUP I highly recommend it. That show was freakin' amazing.

I also got to go to an Evanescence concert on Friday and it was amazing!!! (and I know you all care oh so much)

Reviews:

Thank you to: CodeName Targeter, Cow as White as Milk, TheMidnightRose and Saxifrage (I'm glad you like my 'boring') and of course to Nikki101 and brigurl.

I know I said you'd find out how Xander and Anya are going to teach, but your not. You will eventually, just not this chapter.

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Chapter 20 – Developments

Buffy and Willow stepped out into the hall. Willow handed her the piece of paper that she had in her hand. Buffy read it quickly, and then looked up at Willow. "Get him to our Common Room now. I'll be there as soon as class lets out." Willow nodded and headed in the direction of the Great Hall. Buffy headed back inside the classroom and did her best to act natural.

The four Gryffindor students hung back after the class was over. They had a feeling that the interruption was more then Buffy had lead on. When they went to talk to her, they found that she really didn't give too many details, just orders.

"I want Dawn to come with me now. In about a half hour, I want the rest of you to meet us in my common room." At this point the others knew Buffy well enough, to know not to question her. They did what they were told. Harry, Ron and Hermione spent the half hour wondering what could be going on. Meanwhile, Dawn found out exactly what was going on.

Dawn entered the Scooby common room to find Draco and Willow sitting on a couch that was facing a fireplace on the wall to the right of the entrance. "What's going on?" Dawn asked spotting the looks on the others' faces.

"This came this afternoon." Willow said, handing her the note. She read it then addressed the group.

"What exactly does this mean?" She asked.

"It means," Draco said finally speaking up, "that my father is going to go looking for the Headmaster at Hogwarts and find out it's not there anymore, and then he'll turn to me for answers." He said, as if he suddenly realized exactly how hard it would be to go against his father.

"But we're not going to give him that chance." Buffy said. "I have a plan. What we need to do is keep him away from Hogwarts. I have a feeling Professor Dumbledore might be able to help us out with this." She said with a mischievous smile. Dawn glanced at her watch.

"Draco should probably head out." She said. "The others should be here soon." Draco got up to leave, but Buffy stopped him.

"I think it's about time we let the others in on what's going on." She said, but Draco was totally opposed to the idea.

"There is no way I'm letting Potty, Weasel and Granger know what is going on in my life!" He said, sounding more like his old self.

"I'm not asking you to." Buffy said persuasively. "But your all fighting for the same side now, and they deserve to know about it. When the big day comes we are all going to have to trust each other. Now is the best time to start."

"Well, I really don't want to start today!" He said, before he got up and stormed out of the Scooby Tower. Buffy then turned to Dawn.

"You wanna go an talk to him?" She asked. Dawn nodded.

"But what about the others?" Dawn asked.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of them. Right now, we really need to make sure he's on our side. I have a plan, but it can't work with out him." Dawn nodded and headed for the door. She headed out knowing exactly where to find him.

Dawn entered the small room in the east wing of the school. She was not surprised to find Draco sitting on the couch starring into the fire. Dawn sat down next to him and for a short time they sat in silence. Dawn waited for Draco to break it and eventually he did.

"Is there any good reason you're here?" He asked with a sneer.

"You're angry, so I'm gonna let that one go." She said calmly and pointedly. Draco let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry, I just- I really wasn't prepared to let Potter and company in on my little secret, especially on top of everything else that's been going on." He said nicer.

"I get that. But if you don't do it now, when will you?" She asked.

"I really have no idea." He said honestly.

"Kinda figured." She said nodding. She could see he still wasn't convinced. "Look, if you tell them now, by Christmas, you have a good chance that they may even want to help you." He still didn't say anything, but he seemed to be thinking it over. "Alright well, _we_ really need you. I honestly don't think we can win this fight with out you, and if you wanna know why you're gonna have to come back to Slayer Central and find out now." She waited for a response. After a few seconds, Draco nodded. Then they both got up and headed down the hall for Scooby Tower.

Meanwhile, Buffy was busy occupying the others. She was praying that Dawn would be able to convince Draco to come back because she really needed him. She had a plan that was so good it even surprised her. Just before the trio arrived, Willow left to go prepare her classes for the next day, leaving Buffy alone to cover for Dawn.

"So, where's Dawn?" Harry had asked as soon as he noticed she wasn't in the room.

"She's out doing me a favor." Buffy said, but then she pressed on not wanting them to ask her too many questions about Dawn. "She should be back soon, but I really wanted to talk to you guys about the whole Voldemort deal. For now, we're going to stick to Giles's specialty, research." She saw the looks of revulsion on Ron and Harry's faces. "I know, I feel the same way, but there's not a whole lot more we can do. Hopefully we should be getting a major break any moment now, but I'm not saying anything until I'm sure of it.

Outside, Dawn and Draco were standing just before the picture of the sun. Draco was preparing himself for what he was about to do. His palms were sweaty. He never thought he would ever be in this position. He was about to go in and face Harry Potter, the one person he had mocked for the last five years, and now he was _nervous_ about it. Dawn must have been able to tell because she reached out and grabbed his hand. He looked over at her and nodded, letting her know he was ready. Dawn turned to the picture and gave the password. It swung open and Dawn entered, with out letting go of his hand. Draco entered with her.

Draco was now facing Harry, Ron and Hermione who were seated on the couch facing the fireplace. Buffy was standing in front of them. At that moment, everyone in the room seemed to stop what they were doing and direct their attention to the entrance.

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A little on the short side I know, but I have the next chapter written and I'm gonna try to get it up today or tomorrow, but we'll see what happens. I also want to let you know that updates won't be coming as frequently as I would like, mostly to do a special project I'm working on, but I will do my best.

LaterMEGZ


	22. Chapter 21 Friends

Thanks to the oh-so-persuasive Saxifrage I'm posting the next chapter tonight. This is the last one I have written for now, and I have to 'read' three books this week for my schools Graduation Project that no one takes seriously. I'm hoping to be done them by Wednesday with help from Sparknotes, so maybe I'll get another chapter up by Friday, before I got to the shore for the weekend. Thanks again to Saxifrage for reviewing  
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Chapter 21- Friends  
  
Harry heard the portrait hole open and so did the others. He was not surprised to see Dawn step through, however what did surprise him was the person who entered with her. The person whose hand she was holding. It was Malfoy. Harry was feeling both very angry and very shocked. Ron seemed to be sticking with very angry, while Hermione just sat in silence, her expression was unreadable. Dawn was the first to speak.  
  
"Hey Guys!" She said in a cheerful yet uncertain voice. Out of the Gryffindor Trio, Harry was the first to speak.  
  
"Dawn," he said try to be calm, "what are you doing with him?"  
  
"Buffy's gonna explain." She said as she led Draco past the other three and onto the loveseat that next to the sofa, facing the entrance. Then she poisoned herself so that she was closest to the sofa and Draco was closest to the fire. Buffy then realized that she better start explaining things fast before the kids killed each other.  
  
"For starters, one thing you all need to understand is that we are all on the same side." She started, but Ron interrupted her.  
  
"We are not all-"  
  
"Yes we are." Buffy as calmly as she could before continuing. "Now, I get that you guys have a history, but what we have to do is bigger then any little rivalry you may have. So get over it, because I seriously don't have time to deal with it." Everyone sat in silence while Buffy paused to glare at them. "All you need to know is that Draco is on our side. If he wants to tell you his story he can, but that's not up to me. Right now, we have a bigger problem.  
  
"Draco's father I going up to the school to see Dumbledore. If don't know what he wants with the headmaster and honestly, that's not my number one concern, because when he gets to where he thinks Hogwarts is Dumbledore won't be there. Then he will know something's up. We can't let that happen." Buffy stopped. The kids, three of whom still looked very angry, all understood what she meant.  
  
"What are we suppose to do about it?" Draco asked.  
  
"At the moment all I have is an idea. I have a meeting with Dumbledore in little bit. I want to discuss this with him before we do anything else. We have two days to cover this up before your father heads to Hogwarts. I want the all of you to meet back here tomorrow morning before classes start. Right now, I have a meeting with Dumbledore." Buffy said before heading to the portrait hole and exiting the tower. That's when all hell broke lose.  
  
"What are you doing here Malfoy?" Harry spat.  
  
"That's none of your business, Potter." Draco retorted in a very Malfoy like way.  
  
"It is too my business if your going to run and tell everything you just heard to Voldemort!" Harry snapped back. Ron was just about to get involved when Dawn silenced all of them.  
  
"Could you guys just chill for, like, five seconds?!" Dawn asked exasperatedly. Everyone did as they were told, and the Gryffindor Trio were slightly surprised when Draco did not turn around and make a snide remark toward Dawn.  
  
"Dawn, why are you-" Ron started, but Dawn cut him off.  
  
"Not now, Ron." Hermione had yet to speak on the subject. She had been too busy marveling at the fact that Dawn seemed to be friendly with Malfoy.  
  
"I don't care what you think of each other. Whether you understand it or not you will work together." Dawn said, mimicking something very similar to what Buffy had said earlier. Hermione finally spoke up.  
  
"Do you have any idea what you asking us to do?" She said quietly. "You're asking us to work with the enemy."  
  
"Draco is not the enemy." Dawn said somewhat defensively. "We're all on the same side here."  
  
"No we're not Dawn! Why are you defending him?!" Harry, who was now standing, asked angrily. At that point, Draco had had enough of being talked about like he wasn't in the room. He got up crossed to the door and left the tower. Dawn rounded on the others, but she took a different approach to getting her point across.  
  
"The past few years, I've pretty much been a brat. I held grudges and was a very unforgiving person. Then this year someone that had left Sunnydale a few years ago, someone that I hated, came back a very different person then when she left. Now, I'm still not sure I forgive her, but we need a little Faith in this fight. Another person we need just left this room because of the three of you." Dawn was pacing in front of the fireplace as she spoke and Harry had returned to their seats on the couch.  
  
"I can't believe that you would be so stupid as to give up the help of a person who has access to as much information as Draco does, especially you Hermione." Hermione opened her mouth to defend herself, but Dawn kept talking. "Now, I don't know how I expected this meeting to go, but I expected better then that. I mean I thought you guys wanted to beat Voldemort, but I guess I got the wrong impression." Dawn finally fell silent.  
  
"You don't know him Dawn." Harry said as gently had he could while trying to control the anger that was boiling inside of him.  
  
"No. I don't." Dawn said matter-of-factly. "But apparently neither do you." With that Dawn turned on her heal and left the tower leaving the others to stare after her in a stunned silence.  
  
Dawn headed back toward the east wing of the castle for the second time that day. When she reached the now familiar door, Dawn didn't even bother to knock. When she entered the room Draco turned around sharply, from his place on the floor in front of the fireplace, to look at her with a surprised expression on his face.  
  
"What like you're surprised to see me?" She said still standing in the doorway.  
  
"Not to be rude or anything, but I would kind of like to be alone." Draco said.  
  
Dawn turned around and shut the door before saying, "If you wanted to be alone, you would have gone someplace that wasn't here. You had to know I'd come looking for you." Draco stayed silent and turned his attention back to the fire. Dawn then walked around the couch and sat down neatly next to Draco. Dawn looking at Draco and Draco looking into the fire.  
  
"Ya know, there are three things in life that people love to stare at. A rippling stream, a zamboni going round and round, and a fire in a fireplace." Dawn said, now looking at the fire too.  
  
"A zam-what?" Draco asked turning to look at her, but Dawn just smiled and shook her head.  
  
"Never mind." There was another quiet moment before Draco spoke up.  
  
"Why is it every time I leave a room angry you come after me?"  
  
"It's not because Buffy sent me." She said reading his mind.  
  
"That's not what-"  
  
"Yes it was." She said cutting him off. She knew he was trying to tell her that he had not been thinking that, but Dawn was very good at reading people.  
  
"Then why?"  
  
"Couple of reasons. One being, I'm the only who know where you run off to. If I don't come after you no one will. The other is more because of something someone told me a very long time ago."  
  
"And what's that?" He asked, only because he new she wanted him to ask.  
  
"If you have only one good friend, then you're a very lucky person." Dawn said trying to stress the importance of these words.  
  
"We're not friends." Draco said softly, yet simply.  
  
"No, we're not." Dawn agreed. "We don't know nearly enough about each other to be considered friends, but I'm willing to learn. You game?" She asked with a small grin. Draco returned the grin and nodded in response. Once again, Dawn Summers managed to amaze him.  
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Aw, Dawn finally grew up.  
  
Well, that's all I have for today. I'm going to try to get the next chapter up by Friday, but as I'm thinking about it, it's probably going to be kinda long because I have to cover what Buffy is thinking, What the Gryffindor Trio are thinking and what Dawn and Draco are thinking as well as Buffy's meeting with Dumbledore. And I still have to do my stupid Graduation project. If I don't get it up by Friday, hopefully by Monday. 


	23. Chapter 22 Thoughts

Okay, change of plans. I am now leaving for the shore tonight and I won't be back until next Thursday. I think this the longest chapter I've written so far. I'll have my laptop while I'm away, but I can't get the internet so I'll have a few chapters typed and I'll just have to upload them when I get back.  
  
llit06: I still don't know yet. I would like to make it b/a but I don't know if it will fit in the story line.  
  
gabrieldarke: Yes, that is the direction I am going in.  
  
Special thanx to Nikki101 and cilou for reviewing.  
  
And of course to the oh-so-persuasive Saxifrage. You will be happy to know that I finished my project. And look. I got the chapter up a day early.  
  
My Beta reader is playing catch up this week. This chapter is not beta read yet, but hopefully by the time I get back it will be (no pressure Ang).  
  
Okay, story time!!!

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Chapter 22 – Thoughts  
  
Buffy walked through the Hogwarts halls, on her way to meet with Professor Dumbledore. She knew that back in the Scooby tower that there were four arguing teens. She was hoping Dawn would keep them all alive. To most, leaving any Gryffindor and Slytherin in the same room was asking for trouble, and leaving Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy in the same room was just down right dangerous. However, Buffy knew that they had to learn to work together, and fast. If they didn't there would be two wars going on at the same time and they didn't have time for that.  
  
Buffy approached the gargoyle that lead to Dumbledore's office and gave the password. When she reached his door she knocked and entered when Professor Dumbledore told her to.  
  
"Ah, Miss Summers. What brings you to my office this evening?" Dumbledore asked smiling.  
  
"This." Buffy said simply handing him the letter Draco received. Buffy had kept Dumbledore informed about Draco's situation, so this was not quite surprising. Dumbledore quickly read over the letter, as he did this Buffy slide into a chair in front of his desk. He looked up when he was done reading.  
  
"Professor, you know as well as I do that if Malfoy goes to Hogwarts in two days and finds and abandoned school there are going to be problems." Buffy said. "Did anyone remain back at Hogwarts when you came here?"  
  
"Yes, the Game Keeper, Hagrid did. He lives in a hut on the school grounds. There was not enough room for that here and we needed someone to keep an eye on the up keeping of the school." Dumbledore replied.  
  
"Okay, then I think what we need to do is have Draco write back and tell his father that you will be at Hogwarts in two days. Is there anyway you can get there?" Dumbledore said there was so Buffy continued. "I think the best way to go about this would be to have you there. That way, no one will be suspicious in Voldemort's circle."  
  
"You seem to have things under control Miss Summers." Dumbledore said, giving her a small smile.  
  
"I try." Buffy said nodding. Then, realizing she needed to go she said. "I should probably go find Spike and go do the only job in the world that would still leave me eligible for unemployment. That is if I wasn't working here."  
  
"I understand." Said Dumbledore chuckling. "Good Night Miss Summers."  
  
"Good Night Professor." Buffy said before exiting the office.  
  
Back in the Scooby common room, Harry, Ron and Hermione were still staring at the portrait hole that Dawn had just exited. They sat in a confused silence for a few seconds. Ron was the first to speak.  
  
"What exactly just happened?" He asked.  
  
"Dawn just left very upset at us be cause we didn't want to work with Malfoy." Hermione said as if Ron were very stupid.  
  
"Gee, thanks for clearing that up for me Hermione." Ron said sarcastically.  
  
"Well you asked!" She retorted.  
  
"Could you two not go at it right now?!" Harry asked angrily. "I've had enough yelling for one night!"  
  
"Sorry." They both murmured.  
  
"We need to get back to the common room and find Dawn." Harry said, nicer. Then Hermione voiced what all three of them were thinking, but none of them wanted to believe.  
  
"What if she went off after Malfoy?"  
  
"She couldn't have." Harry said.  
  
"Why not?" Ron asked  
  
"Because she can't get into the Slytherin common room. Even if she did, the other Slytherins would eat her alive." Harry replied. "Right now we just need to get back to the common room and sort this out."  
  
"Harry's right." Hermione agreed. With that they headed out of the tower and up the marble staircase toward the Gryffindor common room and dormitories.  
  
After giving the password to the fat lady they entered the common room and Dawn was nowhere to be found. People were starting to head to bed at this point, so Harry and Ron went to sit in the comfortable chairs by the fire while Hermione went to the girls dorms to see if Dawn was there. When she came back alone she also settled herself in to a chair near the fire.  
  
"Why do you suppose Dawn is on Malfoy's side?" Ron asked.  
  
"What I want to know is why Dawn and Malfoy came in together. I mean, they weren't exactly friendly every other time we saw them together." Harry commented.  
  
"But that's just it Harry. What about the times we didn't see them together?" Hermione asked.  
  
"No, this is just too horrible to think about. How could Dawn possibly be nice to Malfoy, let alone be friends with him?" Harry asked. To him, it was like his sister was dating his worst enemy.  
  
"But then again, maybe Buffy had told Dawn to go and get Malfoy and bring him to thing meeting." Hermione said. Harry caste her a very doubtful look while Ron spoke.  
  
"I think you have too many 'maybes', Hermione."  
  
"Well, I'm just trying to keep all of the possibilities open. We don't want to jump to conclusions now do we?" She asked, glaring at Ron.  
  
"But that's exactly what we are doing." Harry said exasperatedly as he stood up and started pacing around the now empty common room.  
  
"I think should wait for Dawn and ask her. In the meantime, we can get our homework started." Hermione suggested enthusiastically.  
  
"Hermione, I have enough trouble concentrating on my homework as it is. There is no way I'll be able to get anything done tonight." Ron complained.  
  
"Well, my point, if you would let me finish Ron, is that we should stop guessing what Dawn has been up to and just ask her when she gets back." Hermione said. So they sat. The hours ticked by and when Dawn did not come back into the tower, the trio fell asleep in the chairs they were sitting in.  
  
Dawn and Draco had now migrated to the couch. "So, what do you want to know?" Draco asked Dawn.  
  
"Well, how about I tell you what I've worked out so far, and then you can fill in the blacks?" Draco nodded. "Okay, you grew up in a huge house, were unbelievably spoiled, and you worshipped the ground your father walked, until recently anyway, now you want to be a good guy."  
  
"That's pretty much my life's story." Draco said.  
  
"I also know one more thing." Dawn started. "I know, that for some reason, you love to pick on Harry more then anyone else. We can start there. Why?"  
  
Draco took a deep breath. "It all started when we first met on Diagon Ally. We were both getting fitted for our school robes. I had no idea who he was. He had already told me some things about his life and was about to tell me his name when his robes were done being fitted.  
  
"When I got home, my father had told me that Harry Potter would be starting at Hogwarts with me this year. I had thought about the conversation Potter and I had had at the robe shop. I put two and two together and I figured that I had been talking to Harry Potter. My father proceeded to tell me that I should become friends with Potter, because when the Dark Lord rose again, it would make things very easy for him.  
  
"I tried to be friends with him. I found him in a compartment on the train. He was sitting with Weasley and Granger. I thought the best way to get him on my side would be to show him that he was hanging out with trash. So I insulted the people he was sitting with hoping he would see things my way. Needless to say he did not. Father wasn't pleased. I was very lucky I didn't have to see him until Christmas Holiday."  
  
"Why? What would he have done to you?" Dawn asked.  
  
"I donno. Probably something violent. He always said punishment like that would make things easier for me when I became a Death Eater." Draco said bitterly. Dawn, not sure of what to say, so she sat quietly and waited for him to continue. "So anyway, after that I was always being compared to the accomplishments of Potter and company, and punished when they did better then me, which was often." Dawn could sense that it was time to change the subject.  
  
"So why the sudden interest in the white hats?" She asked, and off of Draco's confused look she added. "The good guys."  
  
"Right. Well my whole life my father was telling me that what Voldemort was doing was the right thing and everyone else was wrong. But at the end of my fourth year Voldemort came back. I was ordered not to tell anyone. I wasn't yet a Death Eater so I was not kept in the loop of everything that was going on over my fifth year. However, when I went home for the summer, I got to see what Death Eaters had to do."  
  
Flashback  
  
"Where were you Father?" Draco asked as his father entered the house.  
  
"Taking care of a problem for our Lord."  
  
"What was the Problem?"  
  
"David Clearwater." Was the simple response.  
  
End Flashback  
  
"And that wasn't the only time he killed someone. I could never understand how he could go to sleep at night after what he did." Draco said disgusted. "And he was always going on about our Lord. I never had a choice as to whether or not I would be a Death Eater. I honestly wanted no parts of it. At the time I didn't think I had a choice. There were so many nights when I couldn't fall asleep because I thought I would have to be my father."  
  
"Why would you have to get the mark over Christmas anyway?" Dawn asked curiously.  
  
"Because that's the first that Voldemort will be available and that I'll be home. My sixteenth Birthday just passed this summer. Apparently Voldemort wants any of his followers' children to join when they are still in school so he can have spies inside Hogwarts, but he doesn't want them to be too young either. My father has already told me that the Dark Lord is very excited that he will soon have a spy at Hogwarts."  
  
"That Great!" Dawn said suddenly.  
  
"What? That I was going to be the next spy?!" Draco asked incredulously.  
  
"No. That Voldemort's eager to have a spy at Hogwarts. That means he doesn't already have one!" Draco gave a small smile as he understood what Dawn meant, though he could not understand why no other Slytherins were Voldemort spys, but he would have to figure that out later.  
  
"Well, that's my story. Up until I met you any way, but you already know what happens there." There was a small pause before he spoke again. "Well, now it's your turn. Your life must have been exciting, growing up with a Vampire Slayer and everything."  
  
"Exciting is not exactly the word I would use to describe it. Most of my life I've been in Buffy's shadow, especially once mom learned she was a Slayer." Dawn then took Draco through her life. She started with the most recent world-threatening problem, which was when Willow tried to destroy the world. She also told him about her mom dying and her Father leaving and about all the times she had been kidnapped. Eventually she made her way back to her being the key. She had saved this for last because Draco already knew a little bit about it.  
  
When she was done they took turns telling more detailed and specific stories about each other's lives. They also spent some time talking about the current Voldemort situation. Eventually, they fell asleep, unable to talk anymore.

----------------------Okay, that was definitely the longest chapter I've ever written. Make me happy when I get home and send lots of Reviews. Look for updates on Thursday. 


	24. Chapter 23 Demonology

Hey everyone!!! I know I said I would have this up last Thursday, but I decided to take pity on my Beta reader and not post any chapters until after she's read them. Cuz last time when I started posting before she read them, she ended up with, like, ten chapters to read and she just finished going through them. Now I have to go back and repost so that's my new plan.

I'm off to the sure again in two days, but I should have another beta read chapter up before I go. I can write and type my stories while I'm a way, but I can't send them to my beta reader, so it expect to not have anymore updates for about a week and a half from Saturday.

Now for reviews;

**Saxifrage:** If that's all u have to criticize me on then I don't feel that bad. And you're right, I need to spend more time on the computer, and believe me if I had the time I would. Anyway, thanx for reviewing.

Thanx to **Evilelvengoddess()**,**mk()**, and **Nikki101 **for reviewing.

I also lost track of what day it should be at Hogwarts (go me) but we're just going to say that this chapter takes place on a Friday. (This is going to be one very long story.)

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Chapter 23 – Demonology

Draco woke up the next morning to find Dawn sound asleep on his shoulder. He took a moment to think about how the girl sleeping next to him had given him so much hope in the short amount of time that he had known her. Draco looked down at his watch. It was 8:30. They had a half an hour to get back to their dorms, change, eat breakfast and get to class.

"Dawn." He said shaking her. "Dawn, you need to wake up. We missed our meeting with Buffy, and we have to get to class."

"Huh?" Dawn asked finally waking. "What time is it?"  
  
"Eight thirty-five." He replied. Dawn then lifted her head off of Draco's shoulder and grabbed his wrist. The watch he was wearing made no sense to her, but she didn't have time to figure out how it worked.

"Us and couches huh?" She asked, referring to the fact that they had just fallen asleep on a couch for the third time together. Draco nodded.

"Tell me about it."

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do. First of all we're not going to worry about our meeting with Buffy. We'll just meet with her after Dinner. Now, I'm gonna go to my room, your gonna go to yours. Then we're going to go and grab a quick breakfast in the Great Hall and then head off to Demonology." Dawn said, and Draco agreed. With that they headed out of the room and off to their respective towers.

A half an hour before Draco had wakened Dawn, Neville was in Gryffindor common room waking up Harry, Ron and Hermione. When the trio finally woke up, they could not understand why Dawn had not woken them up when she came in. Despite that, they still had to go and get ready for their classes. When they met back in the common room fifteen minutes later Hermione informed the boys that the reason Dawn did not wake them up was because she did not go to bed last night. Her bed was made and her books were still in her room. Hoping that they would eventually run into Dawn, Harry, Ron and Hermione headed to the Great Hall for breakfast. The group didn't even think about their meeting with Buffy until they saw her at breakfast. She told them not to worry about it, and they would deal with things later.

About twenty minutes after the trio left Gryffindor tower, Dawn went flying through the now empty common room and ran up to her room to change and grab her books. Then she quickly headed to the Great Hall.

It was eight fifty and there was only a few people left in the Great Hall. Draco was one of the few, but Harry, Ron and Hermione were not. Dawn and Draco seemed to be thinking the same thing because they were each grabbing a few pieces of toast from their tables before heading out of the Great Hall, eating as the walked. While in the Great Hall they did their best to aviod each other, not wanting any of the few students still in the hall to be suspicious, however once they reached the very empty entry hall, they were free to talk.

"Nice timing." Draco said as they started out for Xander and Anya's class.

"You too." Dawn replied simply. They walked the rest of the way in silence, not wanting to draw any attention to themselvesThey made it to Demonology just before the bell.

While the morning chaos was going on with the Scooby teens, Xander and Anya were having their own problems. Xander was sitting in the staff room reading the wizarding paper known as "_The Daily Prophet"_ when Anya came in, holding a piece of paper in her hand.

"Okay, Xander, Here is our lesson plan for today. You'll notice that you don't talk. You make sure that the students pay attention to everything I say. This way, there is no chance that you will make them stupid like yourself." She said the last part fairly perky, as she handed him the piece of paper she was holding.

"Well, the lesson plan looks fine, but I can't promise I won't talk. I mean, your teaching Dracula." Xander said, trying to be nice.

"Oh, Xander I already know you're not good with promises. After all you did promise to marry me, and then you didn't." Anya retorted.

"Anya, I already told you I'm sorry, and I know you have no reason to forgive me, but-"

"Whatever Xander! We don't have time for this. We have a class to teach in ten minutes." With that, Anya turned on her heal and left the staff room leaving Xander to follow her.

They got to their room to find three people already waiting for them. Harry, Ron and Hermione were standing out side the room talking about something that seemed very important. Xander caught a few words of their conversation.

"I don't know where she could be." Hermione was saying to a worried looking Harry and concerned Ron. "She didn't come in last night, she wasn't at breakfast and she isn't here. I don't know what to think." Harry was about to say something, but Xander interrupted.

"Good Morning!" He said cheerfully. It was obvious that the others didn't know Xander was standing there because the all jumped slightly when he greeted them.

"Oh, good morning Xander. Anya." Hermione said attempting to be as cheerful as Xander. Harry and Ron also said good morning. Then Anya unlocked the classroom and let the kids in. Xander had noticed that Dawn wasn't with them. Buffy filled the Scoobies in on what had happened at their meeting the previous night, so it wasn't completely shocking to see that Dawn was not with the other three.

Once they were in the room and the three students had taken a seat in the front center of the class, and Anya had started running around the room setting things up, Xander decided it was time to get the Gryffindor's side of the story. "So," he asked casually, "do you guys know where Dawn is?" This time, Harry spoke.

"We're not exactly sure at the moment. She didn't come back to the tower last night, and we haven't seen her all morning." Harry concluded hoping Xander might be able to shed some light on things.

"This is about the whole thing with Malfoy right?" Xander asked. The others nodded. "Let me tell you something. Dawn is an excellent judge of character. She was the first one out of any of us to trust Spike. Even Buffy didn't trust him at first, but Dawn did. Spike just went off to fight for his soul this past summer. None of us ever thought he would do anything like that, but when Dawn found out she really wasn't too surprised. Trust me, Dawn knows what she's doing." Just as he said this a large group of student's started funneling into the room. All four of them knew this conversation was over. Xander turned away to try and help Anya set up, but Anya, not wanting help, hit his hand whenever he tried. The trio were still not convinced that Dawn had made the right choice, and the fact that Dawn and Draco came rushing into the room together just before the bell rang did not help matters.

As Dawn and Draco entered the room, Dawn gave Draco an evil look. Draco, catching on, smirked at her and headed to a seat where a large group of Slytherins were sitting. Dawn meanwhile walked in front of Xander and Anya, greeting them as she passed, and took a seat in the front of the room next to Harry. As soon as she sat down Harry turned to her, and opened his mouth to question her whereabouts, but Dawn cut him off by telling him they'd talk about it later. Though Harry didn't want to wait until later, he knew there was no way of getting Dawn to tell him anything if she didn't want to, and at that moment Anya started class.

"Well, I'm Anya, but you already knew that from your DADA class." Anya said. Then Xander took over, which earned him a deadly glare from Anya.

"And I'm Xander Harris, but you get to call me Xander, and for the love of macaroni don't call me Harris or Mr. Harris because that's what my high school principal used to call me." Many people laughed at this because one teacher in each of their new classes had mentioned their old principal.

"Anyway," Anya said annoyed, "for those of you that are stupid like Xander, and can't read your schedules this is Demonology. Now, I know you've covered vampires in DADA, but today we are going to talk about one of the most famous vampires of all time." She paused "Dracula." With that Dean raised his hand.

"Is there really a vampire named Dracula. I though that was just a muggle myth." Dean asked.

"Oh, no. He's real." Anya replied. "We actually hung out a few times. He was really cool." Anya said dreamily. Then shaking her head she said. "Dracula does have a few more powers then the average vampire. It's mostly gypsy magic though. Now, you're not going to find Dracula hanging out in some crypt. He's more into the big mansions. I've also heard he has special dirt that he uses." The entire class, except for Dawn, looked at Anya in shock, which was mainly due to the fact that she had hung out with Dracula.

"And I hear he was Spike's old rival. He also owes him money." Xander said with his goofy smile. Yet again, Anya ignored him.

"Dracula is one of the only vampires that can turn in to a bat. He can also appear in a wisp of smoke, which is actually pretty cool." Hermione's hand went up in the air. "Yes, Hermione."

"So, is everything that is said in the legends true?" She asked.

"More or less. Spike once told a friend of ours that Dracula is the reason everyone knows how to kill a vampire. Something Dracula does that most vampire's don't is he sleeps and travels in a coffin." Anya stated and Xander pressed his luck by speaking again.

"Dracula can also put a person under his thrall, and believe me, it's really not fun." Xander said and before Anya could yell at him for talking Pansy Parkinson called out.

"There is no way you were under Dracula's thrall." She said similar to the way Draco used to talk to Hagrid. Being a Slytherin, she was disgusted that she was being taught by a muggle.

"Oh he was." Anya said with a smile on her face. "It was actually really funny. Xander was supposed to be his 'eyes during the day.' Xander was not supposed to tell us that he was working for Dracula, but he kept calling Dracula 'Master' it was very entertaining."

"Well, I'm glad you found my days as Dracula's butt-monkey so entertaining." Xander said glaring at Anya while the class in front of him laughed. Anya had had enough.

"Xander, if you recall, you weren't supposed to talk at all this class."

"Anya, this whole thing would go a lot soother if we could teach together."

"No this whole thing would go a lot smoother if you didn't leave me at the-" Anya was cut off by Dawn.

"uh guys? We were talking about Dracula." Dawn had a feeling that it wouldn't be a good idea for Xander and Anya to tell the entire class about their history. Anya turned away from Xander and faced the class.

"Right you are Dawn!" Anya said in her falsely cheerful voice. "For homework write an essay on Dracula by next class, so Xander can grade it. You might want to ask some staff members for help." The bell for brake rang just as she said this. Dawn gathered up her things and headed for the door with out talking to Harry, Ron or Hermione.

Dawn was in the hall before the others caught up with her. Harry fell into step next to Dawn and Ron and Hermione followed behind the other two.

"Dawn, we have to talk." Harry said trying one more time to get answers from Dawn.

"Not here." She said as she headed for the doors that lead outside. "Outside." The others agreed and headed for the door.

"No," Harry said suddenly thinking about the Knights, "the Room of Requirement. We wouldn't want anyone to see us sitting around an abandoned building" The others agreed this was a good idea, and with that the four Gryffindor members headed to the seventh floor.

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Like I said before, there should be one more chapter up before I leave on Saturday. Hope you like it.


	25. Chapter 24 Buffy's Plan

Thanx to **Cow as White as Milk** and **Chrios **for reviewing. This will be last update for a while, but when I get back, there should be a few chapters going up.

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Chapter 24 - Buffy's Plan  
  
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Dawn all headed in to the Room of Requirement. The room was once again arranged in the way that it had been when Harry and Dawn would come in for their conversations. Dawn plopped herself down on the couch while Ron and Hermione slid into chairs around the room. Harry, however, preferred to stand, and it was he who spoke first.  
  
"Dawn, where were you last night?" Harry asked trying to keep his temper from rising the way it did the previous night. "And don't lie." He added. He really didn't think Dawn would, but he wanted to be sure. Normally she would have been offended that Harry thought she would lie, but she knew they had a point. Dawn hadn't told them anything about Draco until last night. If she were in their position she would have made the same request. Dawn took a deep breath in preparation to answer the question.  
  
"I was with Draco." She said. Harry, Ron and Hermione looked as though their worst fears had just come true.  
  
"You what?!" Ron and Harry asked at the same time. Hermione seemed to be trying to remain calm. Apparently taking to heart what Dawn had said to her the night before.  
  
"You guys heard me." Dawn said defensively. The group sat in silence for a few seconds before Hermione finally spoke up.  
  
"Why?" She asked Dawn.  
  
"Because you guys were insulting him like he wasn't even in the room. I thought after a meeting like that he might quit on us." Dawn said this as if it were an obvious answer.  
  
"Why would we want to work with him?" Ron asked. "This is the same person that made my first quidditch match a living nightmare. This is the same person who insults my family at every chance he gets. Why would I want to try to make this work?"  
  
"Ron, he knows people in Voldemorts inner circle. He has access to information that can help us in this fight. It could even save your families lives. He knows how the inside works and he wants to help-"  
  
"How do we know he wants to help?" Harry asked. "How do we know he's not turning around and giving the information that we are giving him to Voldemort?" Harry asked, his temper rising yet again.  
  
"Because he's not!" Dawn said defensively.  
  
"But how do you know?" Harry pressed.  
  
"Look, I just do okay?! You wanna know the details, you're gonna have to go talk to Draco. He's the only person who knows the answers to those questions. One thing you three are going to have to accept is that Draco is on our side. If you can't get over that fact right now, then you're going to be fighting a two front war. On one front you'll have Voldemort and on the other, you'll have yourselves." Just as she said this, the bell rang to signal the end of break. The four students made their way to History of Magic, and the topic of Draco Malfoy was not discussed for the rest of the day.  
  
That day, Buffy tracked down Dawn and Draco and told them to meet in her common room after dinner. When the students had finished their dinner Dawn shot Draco a meaningful look that clearly told him to follow her in a few minutes. When Dawn got to the marble staircase, she told the others that she wanted to stop by her sister's room before heading up. She told the others that she would meet them in the common room later. When they gave their consent Dawn headed down to Buffy's room.  
  
As soon as Dawn was out of sight Harry took off at a run. He sprinted up the marble staircase to Gryffindor tower. Then he flew up stairs to the boys dormitories, and came back with his silvery invisibility cloak just as Ron and Hermione walked through the portrait hole both wearing equally confused looks. Then Hermione notice the cloak in Harry's hand.  
  
"Harry, you are not going to go and spy on Dawn!" Hermione said outraged.  
  
"Hermione, I have to know what's really going on." Harry said exasperatedly. Hermione could tell there was no changing Harry's mind.  
  
"Fine, but you'll have to go by yourself, because we will not be taking part in this." Hermione said defiantly.  
  
"But, 'Mione I want to know-" Ron started clearly wanting to know what was going on just as much as Harry, but Hermione gave Ron a look that clearly said that if he went with Harry she would jinx him into the next millennium.  
  
"It's fine." Harry said. "It's probably best if I go by myself anyway that way I have a less likely chance of getting caught." With that Harry put on the invisibility cloak, and the last thing Ron and Hermione could see was the portrait opening of it's own accord.   
  
Harry reached the picture that lead to Scooby tower just as it was closing, which allowed him to slip in to the common room unnoticed. It wasn't until after he had entered the common room that he had noticed that the person he had followed in was none other then Draco Malfoy.  
  
Harry noticed that the entire Scooby Gang seemed to be present as well as Dawn and Draco. Harry settled himself down on the floor in a corner of the common room just as the meeting was about to begin.  
  
"So, Dawn and Draco," Xander was saying, "what did you guys thing of my class today?" He asked enthusiastically.  
  
"My class." Anya said.  
  
"Our class." Xander said trying to compromise, however that wasn't quite the answer Anya was looking for, but Dawn, sensing trouble gave her response before Anya could retort.  
  
"It was great guys." She said quickly and meaningfully."  
  
"Really super." Draco said who was also sensing trouble. He had to remember to ask Dawn about them later.  
  
"As much as I would love to hear about that lesson, we really don't have a lot of time." Buffy said getting the groups attention. "You all know the current situation we are in with Draco's father and his visit to Hogwarts." Buffy said while the others nodded letting her know they had not forgotten the Scooby Sr. meeting that had taken place the previous night. Before Buffy could continue, however, Dawn stuck her hand up in the air like she was in class and asked a question.  
  
"Where are Spike and Faith?" She asked suddenly realizing they weren't present.   
  
"Oh, they went out on patrol, but they should have been back by now. They probably just ran into a busy night for the world of the undead." Buffy said casually before turning the attention back to the problem at hand. "Anyway, tomorrow, Mr. Malfoy will be making his way to Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore will be taking a portkey over to the original Hogwarts location. Now, as it will be a Saturday, it also happens to be the first planned Hogsmem-"  
  
"Hogsmeade." Giles corrected automatically.  
  
"Hogsmeade visit." Buffy continued as if she had been right all a long. "This means that the students above third year will not be in the building, but they should be in the town that is surrounding the building. Precautions have already been put in place so that anyone who should look at Hogsmeade that day will see the town, as it should be on a day when Hogwarts students visit. The problem is that no one expected anyone to come in the school during that time, so Will, you're gonna go to England for a day and help Professor Dumbledore out so he is sure that everything is they way it should be when Mr. Malfoy comes to visit." Willow nodded. "Now my next question is for Draco." She turned her head from Willow to Draco. "Were you supposed to do anything your first weekend off?" Draco nodded.  
  
"My father told me that I'm supposed to meet him in an ally at the end of the village on the first Hogsmeade weekend." Draco said.  
  
"Okay, then it looks like you'll be making the trip to Hogwarts as well." Buffy said and was about to go on with the day's plan when Dawn interrupted her.  
  
"Can I go too?" She asked hopefully. Harry felt his anger rising.  
  
"I don't think so." To everyone's surprise it was not Buffy who said this, but Draco.  
  
"What?" Dawn asked surprised. "Why not?"  
  
"Because Dawn, you have not met my father before and I really don't want you to ever have to meet him. Besides, there's Voldemort in England, and we really shouldn't be sending more people over there then we have to." Draco said trying to convince her with logic. That, however, did not work with Dawn.  
  
"But I-" Dawn started to argue.  
  
"You're. Not. Going." Draco said in a quiet, but very dangerous voice that made everyone shut up, and Dawn give him a very hurt look. She did not say a word for the rest of the meeting. It took the group a few seconds to get over what had just played out in font of them. Eventually, Xander broke the silence.  
  
"Well," he said, "that settles that." Then in a slightly more optimistic voice he said. "Next topic of discussion?" Giles stepped up to answer Xander's question.  
  
"There really isn't one. At this point we can go no farther until we have more information about Voldemort. Besides, our first priority is making sure Lucious Malfoy gets in and out of Hogwarts with out noticing anything has changed." Just as he finished answering Xander's question Faith and Spike came through the Portrait hole.  
  
"Where were you guys?!" Buffy asked. "You should have been back an hour ago!"  
  
"We were." Faith said defensively. "But those Knight guys were pokin' around out front. They were obviously trying to determine if there was anyway that the thing they were looking for was in an abandoned building. They were also trying to figure out if this place was really as dangerous as the sign said." Then Spike picked up the story.  
  
"And we weren't about to show them that it is indeed perfectly safe, and get ourselves held up in another abandoned building." Spike paused and looked at the others. He read the question on all of the faces that had been present the last time they were dealing with the Knights. "Yes, there was that many of them. Faith and I had to wait until they left. There was no way we were taking them on. We're going to need to figure out a way to stop these guys, Buffy. Before it's too late." The group absorbed this information. Draco, who wasn't supposed to know about Dawn and the Knights, looked at Dawn, who refused to meet his eyes. He supposed it was out of fear, and due to the fact he had just spoken to her rather harshly. Draco was pulled from his thoughts when Buffy finally spoke up.  
  
"Okay, we'll worry about that later. For now, we need to focus on what's going down tomorrow. The Knights can't get in here now, so we have some time to deal with them." The others nodded in agreement. "So, Draco, you need to be back here at eight o'clock sharp tomorrow morning." Draco nodded. "Same goes for you Will, but you live here so that makes it very easy for you." Willow nodded and gave Buffy one of her goofy smiles. "Draco, do you have any questions about tomorrow?" Buffy asked, not wanted the boy to be confused or unsure about anything.  
  
"Yes." Draco said as he nodded. "What exactly am I supposed to do tomorrow? I mean, how should I act?" He asked not sure he made his question clear.  
  
"All you have to do is meet with your father. Act like nothing has changed since you last saw him. Get as much information as you can about the way Voldemort works, and what his plans are. You're in a good position to ask questions like that, as you're only a few months away from when he thinks you will be come a Death Eater." Buffy concluded. Draco nodded. He was starting to get nervous. This would be the first time he would have to face his father since he started working with Harry Potter instead of against him. The thing that terrified him more then anything else was the thought that he would slip up. Buffy seemed to be able to read is emotions.  
  
"You're going to be fine." She said.  
  
"Yeah, kid." Faith chimed in. "Be confident. If you accidentally say something the old you wouldn't say, don't get nervous. Make it out like he's the one who made the mistake, not you. If you believe that what you're doing is the right thing, no mistake you make will matter, just believe in yourself." The others all agreed, though they were slightly surprised that it came from Faith, but you figure the path to redemption will do that to you. Draco, was now feeling much better. The only bad feeling inside him was a guilty weight in his stomach. This was due to the fact that he knew the reason Dawn hadn't said another word, since the debate about her traveling to England, was because of him.


	26. Chapter 25 Final Preparations

A/N: Hey guys! I know you all probably hate me for not updating since last summer.  
All I can say is not only did I not have any time, but my muse also took a serious vacation. But its back (for now) so here's the next chapter (I think it's the longest I've written so far). Also, just so you know we're going to pretend that there is no time difference between California and England because I'm too lazy to figure it out.

Also, sorry about the spacing I had all the paragraphs indented, but when I uploaded it, the indentations went away.

**Chapter 25 – Final Preparations**

"Can I go too?" Dawn asked, hopefully. Harry felt the anger rising inside him. The only thing that confused Harry more then Dawns desire to help Malfoy was Malfoy's response to Dawn's question.

"I don't think that's such a good idea." Draco said. Why wouldn't Malfoy think that was a good idea? Harry asked himself. Surly Malfoy would want Dawn to come with him. That would make it very easy for him to turn her over to Voldemort, but then Malfoy doesn't know Dawn is the Key, or does he? Dawn tried to argue, but Malfoy would have none of it, causing Dawn to fall silent for the remainder of the meeting.

Harry knew that the Scooby gang had come to trust Malfoy, but what surprised him the most was the confidence they seemed to have in him. Everyone from Buffy to Faith seemed to be sure that Malfoy could pull off the plan that they had just laid out before him. Harry felt sure that the entire group was setting themselves up for disappointment.

When it seemed as if the meeting was over, Dawn said good night to the Scoobies and headed to the Gryffindor common room without saying a word to Draco. As Harry was spying on Dawn, he exited to portrait hole behind her. This left Draco alone with the Scoobies in the common room. Draco wanted more then anything to go after her, but he knew once she left the tower it was not safe for them to be seen together. Not wanting to return to Slytherin so early Draco sat with the Scoobies for a while. He was so nervous about what he was going to have to do that he was not even taking in the fun, lighthearted conversation that was going on around him. Faith seemed to notice this. The Scoobies slowly made their way to their rooms, and eventually Draco and Faith were the only two people left. Thinking he had overstayed his welcome Draco got up and headed for the door.

"Why don't you stick around for a while?" Faith said with a very small smile.

"Okay." Draco said as he sat back down.

"Listen kid, I know you're nervous, and I'm probably not the best person to be giving advice, but I'm gonna give it a shot anyway." Faiths slid to the edge of her chair as she said this.

"What sort of advice?" Draco asked uncertainly.

"I know what it's like to make the wrong choice. I've made a hell of a lot of them actually."

"What did you do?" Draco asked. Dawn had not given him Faith's full story. Faith then launched into the story about the time she had killed Deputy Mayor Finch, Professor Wirth, and others. Draco was shocked at this revelation, but understood why the Scoobies were so open to people changing.

"You don't want to be apart of any group that order's a person's death." Faith told him. "It's quite a feeling, feeling a world of possibilities snuffed out by your own two hands. Killing Finch was an accident. Looking back it's Wirth's death that eats at me the most, and you know why?" Draco nodded his head. "Because Finch _was_ an accident, but Wirth wasn't. I went after him with the intent to kill. It was a cold-blooded, straight-up murder." Faith paused to let Draco absorb what she had just told him. Draco knew a lot of Death Eaters and none of them had ever talked about murder like this. He had always heard the casual, non-chalet murder conversations. Faith was giving him a completely different perspective.

"You made the right choice kid, getting out of it. Those people clearly think they're killing for someone who will give them something. I did. But every night I still see the faces of all the people I killed, and I know I will for the rest of my life. You're too young to for that. You've got a long life ahead of you Draco, don't screw it up now." Draco nodded deep in thought about what Faith had just told him. Faith then changed the topic of conversation.

"So, what's with you and the littlest Summers?" She asked.

"What?" Draco asked caught off guard. "Nothing." He had said all of this a little too quickly. Faith smiled.

"Here's the deal. I've never been close to a guy, well, not emotionally anyway, but you sounded an awful lot like Angel talking to Buffy back there, and if you don't know that story already you're not going to hear it from me." She said before he could ask.

"Now Dawn may not be real happy with me right now. It probably has to do with the fact that last time I saw her I tried to kill her mom in front of her, but I am not going to stand by and let you hurt her." Draco nodded knowing full well that Faith was threatening him. Faith then adopted a bright, up-beat voice. "Look on the bright side. If you do hurt her, I'll be the least of you're problems. Draco thought about this and realized she was right. He would have the entire Scooby gang to deal with, but if he ever did do anything to hurt her, he would expect nothing less.

"You better get some sleep, we've got a long day tomorrow. Be here at seven and I'll have Dawn here. She didn't seem too happy with you earlier." With that Faith headed up the staircase that led to the Scooby rooms. Draco headed off to Slytherin tower in a slightly better mood knowing that he would get to talk to Dawn before he left.

Dawn walked briskly back to her room after the meeting. How dare Draco Malfoy talk to her like that! After all she had done for him. Her thoughts were interrupted however, by the sound of quiet footsteps behind her. She turned around, but found no one standing behind her.

"I know someone's there." She said annoyed. Harry, who was standing a few feet from her under his invisibility cloak, knew he had been caught. He pulled the cloak off and Dawn's face immediately reddened with anger.

"Are you following me, Harry?" Harry was getting ready to answer, but Dawn did not give him the chance. "Were you _spying _on me?"

"I just wanted to know what was going on." Harry said.

"So you decided the best way to do that would be to spy on me?"

"Well how else would I find out? I doubt Malfoy would have told me." He said also getting angry. "You seemed okay letting him in on your secret."

"Harry I am _not_ doing this tonight." Dawn was now as angry with Harry as she was with Draco. Before Harry could say anything else Dawn turned and walked away so quickly that it took Harry a few seconds to realize she was gone.

Dawn had just got to her room when an owl tapped on her window. She opened the window to allow the owl to enter the room. She removed the scroll from the owl's leg and it quickly exited the room. Dawn then opened the letter the owl had brought her.

_Dawn,_

_I know you're not happy with Draco right now, but please meet him in our common room at seven tomorrow morning. I'm not sure if you noticed it or not, be he really likes you, Dawnie. I can tell he's really upset that you're angry with him so please, just come talk to him. It will make tomorrow go a lot smoother if he knows you're not mad at him. _

It wasn't signed so Dawn just figured it was from Buffy. It part that surprised Dawn the most was the fact that Draco liked her. Dawn was suddenly filled with a very happy feeling when she realized that she liked him too. Dawn was still angry with him, but sleep came easily to her knowing that she would have the next morning to talk to him.

Draco entered the Scooby common room, and was surprised to find it empty, with the exception on a breakfast tray that was sitting in the middle of the room. Draco sat down on the couch, his stomach in knots, waiting for Dawn to arrive. He felt like he had been waiting ages, but in reality it was only five minutes, when the portrait hole swung open and Dawn walked through. He stood up when she entered, unsure of what to say. Dawn didn't say anything either she simply crossed to a chair and sat down in it.

"I didn't think you were coming." Draco said

"I seriously considered not coming." Dawn said. However, this was not true. There was no way she could not come, but she didn't want him to know that.

"Well, I'm glad you did." Draco said. There was a moment where neither one of them did anything but look at the floor. "Look about what happened yesterday-"

"What part?" Dawn interrupted. "The part where you acted like my sister, or the part where you treated me like I was two years old. Then again, I guess those are both the same thing aren't they?"

"I didn't mean to do either of those things, I just didn't want you to get hurt. In case you haven't heard my father was never incredibly fond of muggleborns."

"I know, but I can take care of myself. I can not continuously be protected from the world." Dawn said, telling Draco what she had told Buffy in June.

"Look, I'd just rather know you're here safe." Dawn shot him a look telling him she would be fine. "I know you'd be okay, alright? But I would still worry about you. You're the only person I have in this. If I lost you I don't know what I'd do." Draco wasn't even aware of what he was saying. The words just kept coming out of his mouth. He figured they must be true. Dawn was silent, but she had a look of understanding on her face. "Would you just stay here?" He asked softly. "For me?"

Dawn got up from her chair and Draco did the same. She crossed to where he was standing and gave him a hug. It took Draco a moment to realize what had just happened, but after a slight delay he returned the hug. After a moment in each other's arms Dawn spoke.

"I'll stay." She whispered. Draco hugged her tighter and whispered his thanks. After another minute they broke apart. "I'll be in your 'fortress of solitude when you get back." Draco nodded, completely missing the superman reference. Dawn grabbed a muffin off of the breakfast tray, wished Draco luck and then headed out. Only a few moments after Dawn left Faith appeared on the spiral stair case that lead to the Scooby's bedrooms.

"I take it that went well." She said with a smile. Draco nodded.

"Thank you." He said.

"Don't sweat it kid. Just hope you're ready for today, 'cause the gang's on their way down." Sure enough the Scoobies all came down stairs looking fairly alart and awake. They seemed to be in an in-depth conversation about the past.

"The best was Xander's praying mantis girlfriend." Willow was saying.

"Hey! Need I remind you of a certain machine called Malcolm." Xander retorted, while Buffy laughed. They all took something from the breakfast tray, then Giles brought their attention back to the task at hand.

"Can we please steer this conversation back to what we must accomplish today?" He asked exasperatedly.

"Alright." Xander said in mock sadness. "Party pooper." Which earned him a glare from Giles.

"We'll be leaving here at nine, giving us one hour to prepare everything in England." Giles said. "We also need to be sure Hogsmeade is properly enchanted." The others nodded, understanding. "I will be stationed in a room just off the entry hall of the castle. Buffy will be in Hogsmeade, should there be any problems there, and Willow will be with me tracking Lucius Malfoy. Draco, you are to stay put until Buffy comes to get you. When we are done, all of us, includeing Professor Dumbledore, will meet in the entry room with me. Any questions?" When there were none Buffy held out her hand to reveal an empty soda can.

"It's set to leave when four people are touching it. At least, that's what Dumbledore said." She said. "We ready to go?" They all nodded before reaching out and touching the can. Before they knew it they were standing in the entry hall of the original Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"So," Willow said. "What do we do now?"

"We are going to meet Professor Dumbledore in his office." Giles replied. The group headed toward the familiar gargoyle at the base of the stairs leading to Dumbledore's office. Once they arrived in the headmaster's office, Dumbledore informed Willow of the many things that needed to be done in Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. They were also introduced to Hagrid who had spent the past couple days getting Hogwarts back to it's usual appearance.

Willow went to Hogsmeade and gave the town the appearance that there was a variety of different Hogwarts students present. Then, back at Hogwarts, she charmed the school to make it appear as if the first and second year students were in the building.

"Okay," she told the group once her tasks were done. "These are holographic images of students. They will act like real students, but should Lucius run into them, he will walk right through them."

"That shouldn't be a problem." Draco said. "My father will probably just come straight up here."

"Just in case I enchanted the map that I'm going to use to track your father so that if there is any 'student' in the way it will alert me and I will be able to move them with out him noticing."

"Nice thinking Will." Buffy commented. "You guys better go get set up." Buffy told Willow and Giles. Both gave Draco a few encouraging words and then departed.

"Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore said. "Would you excuse Miss Summers and myself for a moment?" Draco nodded and stepped outside Dumbledore's office to wait for Buffy. Once he had shut to door Dumbledore turned his attention to Buffy.

"How is he handling this?" Dumbledore asked.

"Good." Buffy said, nodding. "Well, as good as can be expected. I think he'll be fine." Buffy said confidently.

"I think you are right." Dumbledore agreed.

"Well I better get to Hogsmeade with Draco." Buffy said.

"Good luck." Dumbledore said.

"You too, though I doubt you'll need it." Buffy then left the office.

Buffy shut the door to Dumbledore's office. "You ready?" She asked Draco. He nodded confidently, but Buffy didn't miss the nervous look in his gray eyes. "Don't worry. The hardest thing for you is going to be to keep your emotions in check. Just don't let him get to you. You'll be fine."

"I hope you're right." Draco said.

"Hey, I'm the Slayer. I'm always right. Well, most of the time. Maybe not about school stuff, but when it comes to plans like this I tend to be right." Draco was unsure whether this made him feel better or not. In the end he decided it didn't, but Buffy was right about one thing. It was going to be very hard to not let his father know what he really thought of him. Draco couldn't wait for this to be over.

Five minutes later they arrived in Hogsmeade and five minutes after that Buffy was in position at the Hogs Head, which was located near the end of the village, near where Draco was waiting to meet his father. Willow and Giles were in the room off the entry hall, and Dumbledore was in his office. Everyone was in place. Now all they could do was wait.

Once again, sorry for the lack of update. Hopefully I'll be better at it now.


End file.
